A Note from the Poet

Dear Reader,

I count it a privilege to have grown up on the campus of Bob Jones University, surrounded by brilliant, Christ-centered, humble, talented, and faithful professors. How blessed was I that Jesus let me be born into all of this—their lives were living testimonies, quietly radiant with devotion, marked by sacrifice, and poured out for the glory of the One they served. In recent years, many of these dear saints have gone home to be with their Lord and Savior. Truthfully, I cry over every one. Yet even as tears fall, I rest in the certain knowledge that their sacrifices and eternal rewards far exceed anything we can imagine this side of glory. Through decades of faithful service, they have touched thousands upon thousands of students, leaving an indelible imprint of Christ upon generation after generation. This poem is my humble tribute—to them, and to so many others who have crossed into their eternal home.

With deep gratitude, love, and admiration
for their Christ-centered service—
a lasting example of faith poured out for His glory,

To God be the glory—always and only.

The Poet

Psalm 116:15
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:21
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

John 14:2
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Revelation 14:13
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:2 Timothy 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Matthew 25:21
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Hebrews 12:1
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

How my heart aches
when word arrives like evening’s hush
that a saint I have loved
has crossed the final threshold
into the everlasting home prepared for them.

I and many others were granted
the rare privilege of watching
their Christ-centered gifts unfold—
talents refined in the furnace of devotion,
a brilliance that never sought its own glory
but steadily reflected the radiance of the Crucified.

At their side I learned
the quiet art of a faith made flesh,
and still I aspire, with imperfect resolve,
to carry even a faint echo of that light
into the ordinary hours they no longer share.

Yet the ache abides:
a sacred hollow where their presence once dwelt,
a hushed space once filled with their voice of praise.
With grateful hands I release them
into the scarred embrace of the Savior
who first claimed their heart,
while mine continues onward—
marked forever by the honor of having seen,
having learned,
and still striving to mirror, however faintly,
the Christ they so faithfully revealed.