Heroes I Know: Max

“You can’t out-give God and you can’t out-give Max.”
That’s the way we say it at our house.
Max is our next door neighbor and we know a lot about him. It’s hard to hide anything when you share driveways.
His generosity is a fact of daily life for our family; particularly for my son.
My son was blessed with a treasure-load of grandfathers. Not only did he inherit two of the best grandfathers in the world, just by being our kid, but, for some reason, he is also blessed with plenty of surrogates.
He must be some kind of grandfather magnet.
Maybe old guys see my son and remember what it was like to be a boy; young, invincible, and full of dreams and imagination. Or maybe they see me and recognize a woman who has her hands full with this kid. Either way, I’m thankful.
William has been following around behind Max since he was big enough to toddle.
Together, they’ve battled snakes with shovels, made wooden creations in Max’s shop, built campfires, and trained our dog to sit for treats.
Over the years, Max has included my son on adventures when his own grandsons visit, turning hikes into expeditions and a dip in the lake into celebrations of boyhood.
All the while demonstrating a vast generosity of spirit that is synonymous with his faith.
Oh yeah, and he prays. A lot.
How do I know? I ask him to and I can tell by the way he follows up.
I would have been willing to spend a lot more to get this house, if I had known that prayer came as part of the package
Right now, Max is battling cancer again.
It must be exhausting work. I can tell by the way it takes all his energy just to get the newspaper.
He still has energy to check on us. To love my son. To love his kids and grandkids. And his wife of more than sixty years.
So, I’m praying for Max, not that I’ll ever be able to catch up with all the gifts of prayer he has given me over the years.
I know people who pray for parking spaces. Okay, maybe I’ve done it myself once in awhile. Not any more though.
To me, miracles are about life, not parking spaces. I am discovering as I age that life happens deep within. The body is essential to our survival on this planet, but there is more.
Somewhere beyond our body, and, at the same time, somewhere deep inside ourselves, we know that life is happening regardless of our physical condition.
When our bodies are done, life will still happen.
Sounds cosmic, and yet, we know. Somehow, we know.
Maybe it’s because Max’s spirit is bigger than his body. More real somehow.