The night is coming

She sat next to me at the hair salon. She leaned over and said, “Mister, has anyone ever told you that you have a striking resemblance to Harrison Ford?”

Of course, I was pleased with my introduction to her, and immediately felt gratified that she thought I looked like a movie star. I told a friend about this later and he deflated me.

“Well, Harrison Ford is a bit ‘long in the tooth’ now!” he said.

Ouch.

Anyway, this was my introduction to Cherry Starr, wife of legendary quarterback Bart Starr. We saw each other often back when we used the same day-of-the-week for haircuts, but not so much this past year when I changed days. She was happy when I told her I once bought a car from Bart Starr Lincoln-Mercury in Birmingham.

Cherry was a cheerleader at the University of Alabama when she and Bart secretly married for fear that the coach might frown on his players being married. Their marriage lasted more than 60 years, including productive years in Green Bay, Wis. where Bart was quarterback and coach for the Packers. He won four league championships and two Super Bowl victories.

It was early 2019 when Cherry told me her husband was doing better and she’d love for me to come by and meet him. I’m not sure now why I didn’t jump on this opportunity, but soon Bart grew worse, and he died in May of that year.

Cherry died on Feb. 27.

Life is filled with opportunities; some we grasp and some we lose. I think we realize this more with each passing year when most of us seniors have lost people close to us, and perhaps have had some disturbing medical episodes ourselves. Life is a gift, and every day an opportunity God gives us to love and serve somebody else.

Jesus had a busy day one Sabbath when he helped a woman taken in adultery and then healed a man born blind. The religious leaders were distraught when he declared they had sin just as this woman did, and that he also dared to do acts of healing on the Sabbath. In the midst of this, Jesus spoke some well-known words: “We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no man can work” (John 9: 4).

In the ancient world darkness forbade manual labor and large gatherings. Jesus used darkness as a euphemism to describe the cessation of opportunity.

Night came for Jesus soon enough when he faced the cross, and night comes for all of us at some point.

We must do the good we know to do today before night comes.Reflections is a weekly faith column written by Michael J. Brooks, pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster, Alabama. The church’s website is siluriabaptist.com.