Gò0dNews for Everyone
The Empty Grave
W
by Rhonda Beavers
hen my parents were first married, they decided
but socially because he tended to look down his nose on
to live with my maternal grandmother to help
others he perceived as inferior to himself.
her bring up her pre-adolescent son. My dad
After quickly observing my father’s perfectionistic
moved into a community in which my mom had lived for
efforts, this outsider announced, “that’s good enough, it’s
years. This didn’t phase my dad at all, as he was the most
just Abb Addison.” There was no way out of the grave
outgoing people-person you ever met. He loved talking
except to be pulled out by a pal. After what must have been
to everyone, old or young, rich or poor, male or female.
a cold, steely glare from my dad’s hazel green eyes, my
My mom had no reason to be jealous as there was never a
father put up his young, strong hand and instructed his
more loyal husband. My dad considered them all his peers,
friend Buck, “Pull me out.” The intruder quickly saw his
no more, no less. All these people had a story to tell, and it seems as if my father was determined to hear every one of them. “For I say, for the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). He was also a good neighbor, pitching in a hand whenever necessary. These duties even extended to digging a grave for an old family friend by the name of Abb
social faux pas and beat a path homeward, leaving the dead
Addison after my dad and his best friend had found the
man’s friends to send him to Heaven in style.
gentleman deceased in his bed one chilly late winter morning.
Christ sees us all as equal. He loves to talk with us, but
In those days, graves were dug by hand, and my dad was a
He doesn’t need to because He already knows our story
perfectionist when it came to any handiwork he attempted.
better than we do. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
On this occasion, he was standing in the bottom of the
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for
freshly dug grave, perfecting a small ledge that was placed
ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Christ was
necessarily just below the opening. The group of attending
surrounded at the time of his death by those who loved him,
community men were approached by what some of them
those who mocked him, and those who cared not either
considered to be an outsider. Not an outsider geographically,
way. He was placed in a borrowed grave, but not for long.
54 // April 2022
All He had to do was ask His Heavenly Father, “Pull me out,” and Satan knew to beat a path.
