A Purpose To All Things

    When Reed went to aircraft mechanic school, it was a Vo-Tech, short for vocational technical. Even at that time I had snobby university professors and fellow students who looked down upon training for an actual career. After graduation they learned that despite spending tens of thousands of dollars on a university education, there was nowhere in the universe willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for their skill set. But that, in itself was an education, especially in the field of economics--they earned a degree in debt.

   However, 40 plus years later, when our son Tracy went to the same aircraft school, it was part of the University of Montana. Apparently U of M decided a percentage of their graduates should be employable. As part of the university system, in addition to their career certifications, students could earn an associates' degree by taking English and math classes. Tracy decided to go for it. It was a stretch, but Tracy traded repair work on fellow student's vehicles for repair on his homework. Tracy found most of the math assignments impractical, but haven't we all? I no longer remember how to convert fractions to decimals and it has had no impact on my life whatsoever. 

   Tracy also complained about his English assignments, but apparently found those a little more interesting. He did not have great composition skills, but he had great ideas for topics. And he had a buddy willing to trade help with technique and format for help with transmissions and fuel flow. At this point you may be wondering if I am ever going to tie my title to my content. The answer is yes, right here. There is a purpose to all things is a message God has whispered into my heart many times both before and after Tracy died. Trace may have thought the purpose of writing those papers was to get his A.A. degree, which he did, posthumously. But one of the purposes was so we could have copies of his wry, witty writing style. His assignment to write requesting funding for a project produced "Hempbestos," combining hemp and asbestos to make fireproof insulation, clothing, lotions, etc. His assigned paper to persuade became, "The Inner Infinite Existence," a combination of a religion as high on the Wacko scale as Scientology, with a scheme to get followers to donate their worldly goods to him before departure to their infinite existence. He got an A on his comparison paper, even though the topic was "The Imposed Mental Stress from Unnecessary Writing Classes." To Tracy those were English assignments, to us these are written reminders of our son and blessings from God.

    Trace also thought having to send a photo with one of his scholarship applications was ridiculous, but because of that requirement, we have one of our favorite pictures of him. There is no room for random in the sovereignty of God. Christians sometimes rush to figure out THE purpose in a tragedy, but that is an assignment too big for our limited lifespans and experience. What we can know is that God can be trusted and there is a purpose to all things.