David Dave Linnebur

DAVEYS HEAVEN When I heard that Daveys surgery had gone awry, I remember feeling shock, disbelief, then a bit angry. Davey is only a couple years older than I am, he shouldnt be having this happen to him in the prime of his life! How could this be happening? Then a day later I got word that Davey had lost the fight and a deep sense of loss and sadness came over me as I thought back on the hours he and I spent together working on various mechanical devices and ‘playing with our toys.’ Over the past two days, I have thought of Davey most of my waking hours and how much I shall miss him. Then this morning, I began to think of what Daveys Heaven must be like, and in spite of my feelings of sadness and loss, I had to smile then almost laugh out loud. Daveys Heaven must be a very special and unique place. While God may very well have created a Heaven where there is no work to be done, I somehow think the Heaven He created for Davey has much work to be done, and it is all accomplished with John Deere equipment! BUT, even though it is John Deere, it has to be fixed from time to time, so the next stop in Heaven is Daveys shop. In my minds eye, I can picture the neat rows of lathes, milling machines, saws and the latest of every welding machine ever invented. AND, most of them will have been modified by Davey to make them just that little bit better than the manufacturer could have ever accomplished. As I walk outside Daveys Heavenly workshop, I see endless piles of what ordinary people would define as ‘junk,’ but immediately I understand that there is no such thing as junk, it is actually a gold mine with value greater than the Comstock Lode. For in that junk pile, resides some piece, long forgotten to everyone but Davey that is just exactly the right size, shape and strength to be utilized on an important project. Of course it requires just a bit of modification and if there is not a machine in Heavens shop to do it, Davey will either modify an existing machine to accomplish the project, or he will simply build a new machine which will then reside just outside the workshop in the event it is ever needed again. While we think of Heaven as a place where we can fly on our own without need for any mechanical transportation, I somehow believe Davey will have refused the wings, and instead he has a garage lined with special vehicles that he has built or modified extensively. Each vehicle is equipped with every tool and machine needed to accomplish any repair job on piece of equipment that God can possibly ever need to be repaired! All these things pale to insignificance when I see Daveys reception center. This is where Davey meets those who need anything fixed that no one else can fix! There are stacks of paper, cardboard, and backs of old invoices, along with pencils of all sizes and shapes where they can draw pictures of what is needed. There are also numbers of chairs for those waiting for his special and unique talent since there is no one else like Davey anywhere else in Heaven. But, the most significant place is the quiet room where he sits with his friends after completing a job that no one else could have done. There is a huge refrigerator filled with Pepsi that somehow tastes just a little bit better when mixed with the smell of diesel fuel and cutting oil. Here, we lean back on the tire of his latest project while Davey tells of his latest acquisition or impossible repair job. And, it really doesnt seem to matter that we have already heard the story, perhaps more than once, the important thing is that Davey gets so much fun in telling the story that only Heaven could award that much pleasure!