The Pinecone
|
January 2014
• 9 •
f r om Don J oh n s on , K i r b y P i n e s Chap l a i n
Chaplain’s COrner
Januar y
Vesper Serv ices
He Knows My Name
January 2nd
Reverend Christopher Roof
Associate Minister
Collierville United Methodist Church
January 9th
Dr. Jimmy Latimer
Minister
Redeemer Evangelical Church
January 16th
Reverend Linda Serino
Associate Minister of Congregetional
Care, Second Baptist Church
January 23rd
Barry Grider
Forest Hill Church of Christ
January 30th
Reverend Birgitte French
Minister of Cross Roads
United Methodist Church
They remember the tantalizing hints to
his identity -- the way he would scrawl
“Lewis” and his pantomimed, wild
accounts of foot-stomping jazz bars and
circus parades.
After spending 30 years at the Lincoln
Developmental Center, John Doe was
transferred to several other facilities,
then to the Smiley home in 1987.
In August he had surgery for colon
cancer. When he came back from the
hospital, he had trouble eating and was
depressed. He was transferred to the
Sharon Oaks nursing home in October.
At a brief graveside service last
Wednesday in Jacksonville, a woman
asked if anyone had any words to say.
No one did.
No name, no known family (parents,
brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nieces
or nephews), no friends. How sad and
discouraging.
But, as Max
Lucado states inA
Gentle Thunder,
“It’s not true that
no one knew this
man’s name. God
did…and
God
does. And it’s
wrong to say that
this man never
heard his name.
Who knows how
A
The Associated Press on December 5,
1993 published a story about a person
known as “John Doe No. 24.” The story
headline read, “Unknown since ‘45,
John Doe takes his secret to the grave.
Jacksonville, Ill.”
A few simple facts unfolded. John
Doe was found wandering the streets
of Jacksonville in 1945. He was deaf
and blind and in his teen years. Since
John Doe was unable to speak, repeated
efforts to find his relatives failed and
he was put in the Lincoln Development
Center, an Illinois mental health
facility. They referred to him as “John
Doe No. 24” because he was the 24th
unidentified man in the state’s mental
health system.
Officials believe he was 64 when he
died of a stroke last Sunday, November
28th, at the Sharon Oaks nursing home
in Peoria.
“It’s just sad to think that you could
disappear, and no one would miss you,”
said Glenn W. Miller, the nursing home
administrator. “You wonder how often
it happens.”
The man’s caretakers believe diabetes
made him lose his sight, and records
indicate he was severely retarded. But
workers at the Smiley Living Center in
Peoria, where he spent the last six years
of his life, remember a proud man, more
intelligent than standard tests showed.
many times God spoke it to him through
the years? In the silence. Through the
dark. When we thought he couldn’t
hear, who is to say he wasn’t hearing
the only voice that matters.” P.77.
John 10:3 proclaims, “He calleth His
own sheep by name and leads them
out.”
How great to remember when everyone
else may forget, God knows my name.
When we feel alone and think no one
now or in the future will even recall
us and our life refocus on the fact that
God knows us, by name. He can speak
to us in ways others may never notice
or understand. In His sight we are never
“John Doe.” His words through Isaiah
are relevant today: “But now, thus says
the Lord, who created you…and He
who formed you…Fear not, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by
your name; you are mine.”
(Isaiah 43:1)
Till next time, Rev. Don Johnson,
Kirby Pines Chaplain
