Goodbye, Doc

Sometime early this morning, after more than 100 years of life in this world, the Lord called Doc Scarborough home.

Doc was in his Sunday School class just two Sundays ago. He was there as often as his health would permit, which was almost every Sunday morning. His presence in the class always brought an added bonus, as his personal care assistant would accompany him and sit in class with him.

Two years ago, a group of church members met a few days before Christmas, divided up a list of our older adults, many of them homebound, and then went out caroling. I had just been teaching the Fellowship Class for a couple of months then, and Doc was on the list for the group I happened to be driving. We pulled up to the door, and he warmly responded to our carols. It was dark, and so he couldn't really see who we were and asked what church we were from. He brightened up when we told him we were from Garden Oaks, his own church, and then he recognized my voice. He told me that he had heard I was a really good teacher, and then apologized for sleeping through most of my lessons.

"After all," he said, "I'm almost a hundred years old."

Last August, he celebrated his 100th birthday in the fellowship hall of the church. Imagine how much he had seen in his lifetime. Of course, there is no sense of time in heaven, but perhaps those of his family who had gone on before had sensed that it was taking a little bit more time than usual for their loved one to arrive. Today, he came home.