A Tribute To A Servant Of All

"Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all." - Mark 9:35

This morning as we gathered at my mom's house in preparation to attend dad's funeral, I watched my daughter put pen to paper and write a tribute to her grandpa. She captured the essence of who he was in less than ten minutes -- servant of all. 

Today, she read her tribute at his funeral:
"My grandpa, Paul Bowers, was known as a handyman and it was a title he was proud of. Whether he was in his workshop, on a rooftop, or under a sink, he was fixing something. As a child I thought he could fix anything. If my toy was broken he was the first one I went to; if I had a splinter in my foot he would take me into his office, pull out all his tools and fix me up. He liked to spend his weekends at Trader's World and Big Lots. That's where this handyman collected most of his tools. As I got older I began to question my grandpa's "fixing." His Trader's World fixes were not brand name or new. Now that I am grown I realize that this was his way of loving on people. Raise your hand if Paul ever fixed something for you. Grandpa had a workshop, office, two garages, and a shed full of "fixes."  If you needed a battery, just open a drawer. If you needed a bandaid, he had four cases. If you needed a cell phone charger, he had fifteen. He never had one of anything. One may ask why one man needed so many of one thing. That's because he didn't buy them for himself. They were provisions for serving the ones he loved. They were ways to love people." 

By Beth Reddix