A couple of weeks ago I went a little north of my place, 2 or 3 miles at most, to look at an old cemetery that sat on property a friend owned. Divorce forced the sale of the 500 acres he and his kids enjoyed on weekends and he now lives exclusively in Huntsville, AL. In addition to the ‘cabin’ he erected it had an old cemetery and an extremely old cabin that was once both the home and ‘office’ of a rural physician. The old cabin has been sold off and moved; the tiny cemetery remains as a reminder of things, thoughts, and people past.
It’s really hard to wrap your head around how different a world it is in this area of rural America. Little has changed over the many decades since the doctor plied his craft and, given the proximity of the cemetery to his home, he was not always successful in beating back the death and disease. The cemetery has a bell that, no doubt, was meant to summon God’s angel as the countryside is as void of a people then as it is now.
Every now and again someone will ask ‘why Thomas W(h)ispered’ if I’m not going to talk up God and bash various Christian religious shortcomings. “Garry, why don’t you compare and contrast the sayings in Thomas with the books of the bible?” “Why not use your platform to inform minds and shift opinions?” My answer to this prodding is: “My heart is not black enough.” What terrible hurt/harm comes from challenging a belief that brings comfort to the otherwise inconsolable. Consider the tombstone above and, given such a loss, how would a young couple go on in this world without the belief that their child now sleeps with Jesus? ‘Blessed Thought’ indeed !
How remote is it? The orange arrow below is the cemetery and the blue where the old doctors cabin once stood.
A broader view provided by Google Earth shows that there really is nothing much more than farmland nearby. The orange below is the cemetery and the blue is the Puncheon Church of Christ.
The Puncheon Church is wedged between a rural road on the left and a creek on the right. Obviously this neck of the woods is not real big on ‘minimum setbacks’ that restrict building encroachments on roadways or this church might never have been built. It could not have been built on the left side of the road, the steep ass hill prohibits it. The right side of the church bumps up to a fairly robust stream so it could not have been erected there. So exactly why was it built where it is? I’m guessing it has something to do with the strong spring that can be seen on the left side of the road in the photo below.
Here is another look at the spring. That’s about 15 foot of waterfall from the head to the ground. The spring doesn’t always run this strong, but it always runs. A magical place.
This entire region of rural America is full of clues on how generations past viewed God and how He framed their lives. From the baptisms in the stream near a tiny rural church to the summoning of angels from a lonesome hillside bell these folk managed to squeeze by. A life consisted of grabbing enough land to build a home, raise and feed a family, and then lay at rest in the arms of God once the work was done.
Not much has or will change here. America can run through it’s gyrations with black lives matter, reparations, the mainstreaming of queers/steers/transvestites, and the chaos of pandemics/vaccinations/inoculations/masks and TP gluts and shortages. One day the nation may come crashing down with rubble congregating at the feet of those that took more than they gave, destroyed more than they built. When that happens I really don’t see it having any impact on this corner of the world. The flow of light from the little church, waters of life from the spring, and the rest of souls on a nearby hill all persist. And despite what all those in the cancel culture believe, that’s a good thing.