Dr. Yates

The Sunday after Mom died I received a call from her doctor. He was shocked to hear of her death since he had seen her the previous week. Mom had insisted that I take her to the doctor that day and I willingly obliged. Her blood work was good (good cholesterol was good, bad cholesterol was good, etc.), her heart sounded fine, her lungs were clear. The doctor and I had a nice visit and then the conversation was over.
You may be surprised that a doctor would even call, for in these days of medicine, one hardly knows the name of the doctor let alone hear from him/her outside the clinic. But when Mom had her initial "spell" in January, one of the people Martha called was the doctor. . .at his home. Now that's just unheard of, isn't it? We've known Dr. Yates for a long time even though he's younger than we are.
Dr. Yates was one of the kids in our youth group when I was a youth minister in Northwest Arkansas. He and one of his friends (by the way, the other friend is now Dr. Huffman, M.D.)were two of the stalwarts of that group. Always there, always participating. In fact, I remember one time teaching class and we had the passage that says, "whatever you do, do in the name of the Lord." I made a youth ministerly remark like, "If you're washing dishes, do it in the name of the Lord." One of our teens raised his hand and said, "How can I wash dishes in the name of the Lord?" In my great, mighty wisdom that just exuded from the fact that I was the high priestly youth minister, I said, "I don't know." A hand shot up and the youth man said, "You could thank God that you had food to get the plate dirty." You know who that was? The future Dr. Yates.
I don't claim to have made Dr. Yates who he is today, but I did love him. I tried in my own feeble way to let him know that God cared for him. He at least heard about the Good Physician in some of our Bible classes although I think I learned more from him than he from me.
Later on, he became Mom's doctor. He loved her. He took care of her. He showed her compassion. He exhibited Jesus to her. And I guess if I have a message in all of this, it's this. Pass it on. You never know when it's going to come back to you. I hope you have a good day. Remember to pass it on. JW