The End of An Era

I lost a great friend today.

A long-time friend who loved me with all his heart. I believe there is nothing he would not have done for me.

He was my spiritual father. He preached the gospel to me, the good news of forgiveness and salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He prayed with me as I confessed my sins and received new life in Christ.

I first met this man when I was 16. Although he was just over four years older than I was, I always thought he was a lot older. He was already mature in God. He was a leader in Montreal Youth for Christ. This Christian outreach youth group operated in many high schools in Montreal, but, for some reason, was not allowed in to Macdonald High School, where I was in Grade 10. An alternative arrangement was made, and a group began in the home of a member of the local Presbyterian Church. I attended this group because it was in the home of a friend (my boyfriend’s sister’s boyfriend!)

It was there that I first heard the gospel. It was there that I prayed the sinner’s prayer. It was there that I turned my life over to Christ. It was there I received forgiveness.

That was more than forty years ago. In the forty years since that time, I saw that this friend was a man who loved God. He loved the Word of God. He used to joke that he’d forgotten more scripture than most people ever knew. I saw a man who was fervent in his search for the things of God.

I saw a man who, when his first wife was killed in a plane accident, gave glory to a sovereign God and did not falter in his faith. Many eyes were on him at that time, and the faith of many was strengthened.

Through the providence of God, I was blessed with the friendship of his second wife, who became my dear, dear friend. I drew close to their family, and their family and my family spent countless hours together. Talking, playing, planning, studying. Always returning to the history we had together, to the bond of love in Christ that bound us to each other.

This great friend was a man who dreamed big. He had grand ideas, even if he didn’t always have the ways and means to bring them to fruition. He was never downcast. It was always “onward and upward” with him. Today, he went onward and upward. Today, he went home to be with the Lord.

He was a dynamic and charismatic person, and I loved him. I loved his love of the Word. I loved his love of God. I loved his laughter, his voice, his smile. I loved him for who he was. I loved him for the man he was in God. But mostly, I just loved him.

Ross Walter Bracewell. February 20, 1947-May 28, 2010.