Christmas With Jesus - Remembering Larry Arms

A dear friend went home to the Lord on Monday. I rejoice that he is with the Lord, yet I grieve for those left behind.


Since I learned of Larry's passing, my heart and mind have been flooded with memories, with all kinds of random thoughts from the two short years that Al and I were blessed to know him.


There was the time I had baked a hummingbird cake for our Sunday evening meal at church. Larry asked what kind of cake it was. When I told him, he said, "What did you do? Bake it with hummingbird eggs?". And then he laughed as only Larry could. I'm smiling even now at that memory.


In Sunday School, when somebody made a comment he thought was funny, he would look over at me and grin. I will miss that. I will miss seeing him in that same chair Sunday after Sunday. Of course he only sat in that chair after he and the other guys had gathered around the sofa for some morning chit-chat.


When we joined First Baptist Lyman, Larry went out of his way to make sure we knew where things were and how things were done. Often when you join a new fellowship, the people who have been there all along forget that you don't know that "this is how we do that". Larry never forgot. He always looked out for us.


I'll miss his smile. I'll miss his sense of humor. I'll miss hearing him say "Hey" and "Golly Bum" and "Long story sort."


Larry will be missed by his family and friends and by all who knew him. Larry was an extraordinary man. A man I feel privileged to have known.


Larry has left us now. This year he is spending Christmas with Jesus. Already we miss him so much. We grieve for our loss.  But we rejoice in knowing that he is now in the presence of the One he loved so much and served so faithfully and so well during his time here on earth. I can only imagine the joy he is now experiencing!


We feel a hole in our hearts now that Larry is gone. We will miss him. We hold tightly to the memories of this dear man we loved so much. We grieve.


But we do not grieve "as those who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, [we also believe] that through Jesus God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore [we] comfort one another with these words.  (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 NASB)