Wine...

When I saw Jim last week we talked about the times we shared on Friday evenings.

We had moved our small group meeting time to Friday nights for a variety of reasons related to scheduling and child care. We set it up so it was either at his house or our house every Friday evening. It worked well for both families as all of our children could play upstairs and occupy each other, while the adults met.

Each meeting started with some coffee, something sweet like cake or muffins, always peppered with good conversation amongst Jim, Chris, Jennifer, Joe, Stacey and I. We would talk and talk until someone would say -- isn't time to start our study?

Invariably, once we got going in our study, we didn't want it to end. Jim said to us one time that he really enjoyed the process of getting to know each other, learning, and growing together -- specifically it was exactly what he was looking for. Like Cindy commented in an earlier post, he had great interest in digging deep into the Word, sparking a good debate or just asking really honest and open questions (always with an interesting perspective). Small group was never dull.

On nights when we would have small group at our home, Chris and Jim would often stay and hang out for a while, as the kids played upstairs, we would continue to talk.

We had a ritual -- I would sneak out to the kitchen totally unsolicited, grab a bottle of wine, and come back in with four glasses (six if Joe and Stacey were still around) . Jim's eyes would light up, not knowing what I had in my hands -- it could be a rare gem from Napa or a bottle of Two Buck Chuck. It didn't matter.

This past Thursday I asked Jim if he knew why I uncorked a bottle of wine so often when they came over. I told him it was because I didn't want him to leave... I just enjoyed his company so much.

The last glass of wine Jim had before his diagnosis (and obviously since then) was at my house now 4 weeks ago, sitting in his regular chair (the comfy leather one), next to the fireplace (always roaring) -- and when asked how he liked it, he said it was good with a smile.

I will miss that ritual on Friday nights, but I will miss him more.

Stephen