My Tribute to Rosemary, the lady from Ch. 22. You won’t believe what she did.

I would like to begin by reading something I wrote about Rosemary a few years ago from when I first met her and she helped me come to know Jesus.

Rosemary was so full of life! She was always interested in having fun and was warm, kind and welcoming. She made me feel like a million bucks, like I was the most important person on earth. She had a gift for loving teenagers and I was a teenager who needed love. She quickly became like a second mom to me.

(Long before I was even interested in her daughter), Rosemary’s way of bringing me into the family was to treat me like I was her son. She was affectionate with hugs, compliments, and lots of laughs.

Though Rosemary was religious, she listened to the stories of my life and was simply amazed that I ever survived. She treated me like I was a lost war hero and was worthy of honor and a meritorious award. It felt great to have someone know about my life and appreciate me and what I went through. 

While I shared stories about my life, she shared stories about Jesus, the church and her own life. 

Simply put, Rosemary was Jesus to me before I knew Jesus. She brought me to Him with her love and helped me to know Him in a personal way.

Amazingly, years later I started dating her daughter, and we got married. Yet, nothing changed from Rosemary, she loved me the same. She always considered me part of the family, from the very beginning. I want to say she loved me more, but she didn’t because she already loved me that way.

This church had a large part of me becoming to know Jesus as well and significantly impacted  my call to become a youth pastor. As a youth pastor of nearly ten years here, Rosemary was my biggest supporter. Even starting as a volunteer together when we lost our youth pastor, Rosemary had 30+ years of youth ministry experience and a lifetime of following Jesus, she never acted like she knew more than me or was better than me, she treated me as an equal. 

Then when I became a youth pastor, she followed my lead in every way, ready and willing to do whatever was asked or needed of her, even when teenagers threw smoke bombs in her cabin at Camp Cotubic or live mice at St. Mary’s Campground.

We have countless hilarious Rosemary stories from youth group days,(like leftover chicken in the bathtub) but suffice it to say that I would not have survived any of them without her. Even if she did almost get me fired for leaving a couple of students back at the hotel when the group left to return to Camp Cotubic for the closing service of our Fall Retreat weekend.

We may not have always agreed theologically with some of her old school thoughts, but in the end we did because she taught me the way to follow Jesus was to love people and there is no better theology than that.

I will dearly miss being loved by Rosemary in the flesh and I can’t wait to see her again.

Speaking of which, that really is what all of this is about today. She has entered paradise, returned to husband and her God and is dancing a jig, telling many great stories to those that went before her that have already heard them time and time again.

I’d like to close with my details of coming to know Jesus and ask you to consider joining us or rejoining us if you’ve gone your own way.

On Sunday, (in Marine Corps boot camp at Camp Pendleton) we had chapel services in the field. We sat in metal bleachers that were there for training exercises. Every week during boot camp, I attended chapel services for two primary reasons. First, it was our only time and way to get away from the drill instructors. We had about an hour and a half of freedom. Second, I still loved singing songs. Many of the songs were more traditional hymns rather than the popular choruses that I learned at High Street, but I enjoyed them just the same. My friend had actually become our platoon lay-leader and led prayers each night before bed. I hadn’t really paid this much attention yet, since it wasn’t real personal for me. 

That Sunday morning though, we sat in the bleachers and listened to a Navy Chaplain tell us about the lifestyle of many Marines after boot camp. He talked about how they go out to bars, get drunk and start carousing around. He talked about how they slept around. He talked about how sometimes Marines live such a party life that it will land them in big trouble with the Marine Corps itself. 

I began thinking about my life and how I was a pretty good kid. My dad lived that drinking life he talked about, but I rejected it not wanting to turn out like him. I never drank an ounce of alcohol in my life. My dad was violent, but I refused to be that way. I refused violence even when I had a chance to hurt my dad back. My dad was racist. I refused that attitude and embraced equality. I opened myself up to learning about different types of cultures and their ways of living. My dad thought men were better than women and thought it was okay to  dominate them. I refused that mindset and knew that men and women are equal, just with different qualities and characteristics. My dad had been so selfish in life and abusive to us in many ways that I had been determined to never be like that when I had kids. I never settled for the example that he gave me.

Despite all of the ways that I felt I was not a bad kid, I knew I wasn’t perfect and I needed a savior. I can’t fully explain why. It wasn’t a mental thing. It wasn’t an emotional thing. It was a deep down thing. I believed the message that Jesus gave his life for me, I put my faith in Him, repented of my sins, and asked Him into my life. That morning, I stepped down out of the bleachers and went forward to pray. I told the Navy Chaplain what I thought and felt God was doing in my life and he led me in a prayer where I accepted Jesus into my life.

When I opened my eyes, I was filled with peace and joy that I had never experienced before. There is much more I could tell about how Jesus changed my life after that morning from cleaning up my mouth to forgiving my dad to helping me become a better dad and husband, but none of it would have been possible without Jesus in the form of Rosemary loving me when I needed it the most.

Thank you Rosemary, I look forward to wild antics and tall tales, er… timeless tales when I see you again in Heaven. If you don’t have a current relationship with Jesus, I strongly encourage you to consider one today. Rosemary can’t wait to see you again!