from behind the plow

This is the day that all Christianity is built around.

It’s the day when sinners – that includes everyone – give thanks for the grace that Jesus brought to a sinful world.

Doubters might remember that all the disciples (but John, who was appointed by Jesus with caring for his mother, Mary, and was exiled by the Roman government to the island of Patmos) died painful deaths for their belief that Jesus was the son of God and rose from the dead.

Columnist Kevin McCullough, radio podcaster in New York, calls attention to a short book written by one Colin Smith, “Heaven, How I Got There,” on the Townhall website.

I haven’t read the book, but this is how McCullough relates it: “There’s something that happens when you finally hit bottom.

“When the mask slips, the lies don’t work, and the people you leaned on disappear. When the money’s dried up, the spotlight’s gone, and the pain is louder than the noise.

“You realize—you’re not the hero of your story. “That’s what makes the thief on the cross such a gripping character in ‘Heaven, How I Got Here.’ Colin Smith doesn’t dress him up. He doesn’t sanitize the moment. He paints the man as he was: guilty, vulgar, brutal, broken.”

It’s about the 40 days after Jesus’ crucifixion but its first focus is Jesus on the cross, along with the two lawbreakers who are receiving their (for that time) just punishment.

McCullough adds: “… (t)his throwaway of society is the poster child of grace. He’s the guy everyone gave up on. He had no second chances left. The justice system had done its job. The sentence was final. His blood would be shed before sundown.

“And yet… “He’s the one who made it home.” He later asserts that the thief is the reminder that God saves people who don’t deserve it.

“Not the drug addict hiding in plain sight. Not the woman battling shame from a decades-old choice. Not the father who abandoned his family. Not the teen buried under anxiety. Not the angry, not the apathetic, not the self-righteous, not the bitter.

“Not even me. Not even you.” McCullough further comments: “This isn’t just his story—it’s yours. It’s mine. It’s all of ours.

“We’re not the Savior. We’re the thief. “And if we’re honest—we’ve all played both roles. We’ve mocked. We’ve denied. We’ve run. We’ve rebelled.

“But we can still turn. “And when we do, we find the same pierced Savior, still whispering the same promise: ‘Today.’

“Right now. “Not after you fix it all. Not once you’ve earned it. Not once you’ve cleaned up your mess.

“Today.”

Murrah Building Bombing 30th Anniversary Saturday

Many Kingfisher County residents remember the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

It happened on the second anniversary of the Waco, Texas, shoot-out with Branch Davidians.

The Murrah bombing claimed county resident Steve Williams, 42, of Cashion, a Social Security Administration supervisor.

Warren Vieth, Kingfisher native, a lifelong friend of Williams and an editor of The Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau, wrote a tribute to Williams appearing in state publications.

Local residents became aware of the bombing quickly after its occurrence.

Twila Adams, now a copy editor and news writer for the Kingfisher Times and Free Press, was a new mother with daughter Jami at the time and recalls feeling like the air was pulled from their home at about the time the blast occurred.

The FBI report on the bombing said this: “On the morning of April 19, 1995, an ex-Army soldier and security guard named Timothy McVeigh parked a rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.

“He was about to commit mass murder. “Inside the vehicle was a powerful bomb made out of a deadly cocktail of agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel, and other chemicals. McVeigh got out, locked the door, and headed towards his getaway car. He ignited one timed fuse, then another.

At precisely 9:02 a.m., the bomb exploded. “Within moments, the surrounding area looked like a war zone. A third of the building had been reduced to rubble, with many floors flattened like pancakes. Dozens of cars were incinerated and more than 300 nearby buildings were damaged or destroyed.

The human toll was still more devastating: 168 souls lost, including 19 children, with several hundred more injured.

Later parts of the report said this: “It was the worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation’s history.

“Coming on the heels of the World Trade Center bombing in New York two years earlier, the media and many Americans immediately assumed that the attack was the handiwork of Middle Eastern terrorists.

“The FBI, meanwhile, quickly arrived at the scene and began supporting rescue efforts and investigating the facts. Beneath the pile of concrete and twisted steel were clues. And the FBI was determined to find them.

“It didn’t take long. “On April 20, the rear axle of the Ryder truck was located, which yielded a vehicle identification number that was traced to a body shop in Junction City, Kansas.

“Employees at the shop helped the FBI quickly put together a composite drawing of the man who had rented the van. Agents showed the drawing around town, and local hotel employees supplied a name: Tim McVeigh.

“A quick call to the Bureau’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division in West Virginia on April 21 led to an astonishing discovery: McVeigh was already in jail.

“He’d been pulled over about 80 miles north of Oklahoma City by an observant Oklahoma State Trooper who noticed a missing license plate on his yellow Mercury Marquis. McVeigh had a concealed weapon and was arrested. It was just 90 minutes after the bombing.

“From there, the evidence began adding up.

“Agents found traces of the chemicals used in the explosion on McVeigh’s clothes and a business card on which McVeigh had suspiciously scribbled, “TNT @ $5/stick, need more”. They learned about McVeigh’s extremist ideologies and his anger over the events at Waco two years earlier. They discovered that a friend of McVeigh’s named Terry Nichols helped build the bomb and that another man—Michael Fortier—was aware of the bomb plot.

“The bombing was quickly solved, but the investigation turned out to be one of the most exhaustive in FBI history. ...

“By the time it was over, the Bureau had conducted more than 28,000 interviews, followed some 43,000 investigative leads, amassed three-and-a-half tons of evidence, and reviewed nearly a billion pieces of information.”