Some of us attended the memorial service for Al Hochstetler yesterday.  As Al was able he did puzzles… smaller towards the end but many fairly complicated ones before that.  I commented to Al after admiring his work on a 1000 piece puzzle:  “I don’t think I have what it takes to do that.”  He replied, “It does take a reasonable amount of patience.”  God worked a lot of patience into Al’s life.  You don’t walk with Parkinson’s disease for 37 years without having plenty opportunity to learn patience.  Al’s life reminds us all of the call to and the value of patience.  (Our sermon for this Sunday is what I would have preached yesterday at Al’s memorial service if a sermon was called for.  So in a sense, our upcoming sermon time will be a continuation of remembering and celebrating Al’s life together that was begun yesterday.)