When your small community is on a bridgeless island fraught with logistical challenges, certain people become extremely valuable to the health of the community. A person who is skilled in multiple trades, with their own tools and heavy equipment as well as a willingness to work hard, becomes worth their weight in gold. If that person does what they say they will do when they say that they will do it, and does the work of three people, they are more valuable than platinum. If that person also works quietly behind the scenes doing work that absolutely needs to be done for people who cannot afford to pay for the job to be done right, you now have a person whose value is incalculable.
Such was the value to our community of Joe Davis.
Joe Davis passed away suddenly last week, leaving behind a group of grieving loved ones including a wife, children, grandchildren and many close friends. Frankly, the hope for most of us is that when we die (and that day will come for all of us), there will be a group of people who will mourn our passing, because we will have poured our love into them, and it would be only natural for them to miss us. Their mourning signifies that the deceased’s life had meaning to them, and our hearts go out to those who were closest to Joe.
But the impact of Joe’s passing is so much greater, because he touched so many more lives in our community. The old adage is that no one is irreplaceable, but Joe is going to be one of those rare people who put that adage to the fullest test possible. And perhaps I’m biased, because Joe served as a trustee at the church for many years and I had the privilege of seeing his acts of kindness firsthand. The strongest in our community will be able to bring in someone else to do the work that Joe had been doing, but to the weakest – those he served selflessly – Joe will be irreplaceable. Our community is much worse off for his passing. I know that Joe would never want to think about his death in that way, because it would mean that too many people were thinking about him and he might think that he was letting someone down. However, he was simply that valuable to our community.
Next Tuesday at 10:00 am at the church, we will have a funeral service to celebrate Joe’s life, with a lunch immediately following at the Ministry Building. Remind me at that lunch to tell you about how Joe’s generosity made that building possible. If you are going to be on the island on Tuesday, come and pay tribute to a man of incalculable value, and let Melissa know that you’ll miss Joe too.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron