It was Christmas Day, 2017, and we had just finished having Christmas dinner. We, my middle son Michael, my youngest son Eli, Brenda, and I had already opened presents earlier in the day, but there was an uneasiness in each of us.

Reggie Jr. was not there, and his absence was the white elephant in the room. It was the first Christmas for each of us without his presence and, to be honest, we all felt a sense of trepidation. Was he alright? Was he in jail? It wasn’t unusual for Reggie to not come home, but he would generally call, even if he had to borrow a phone from a stranger (his phone was busted, and he had to wait until January 1st for his insurance to kick-in for a new one).

You can’t call anyone on Christmas Day. Everything is closed. So bright and early the next morning, I called the Harris County police department and filed a missing person report. A detective stopped by our house at 11:00 AM. He took all the pertinent information and said he would get back to us ASAP. As we were preparing for bed that night, the doorbell rang.

I wonder what would have happened if I’d never answered it, as if that would change the outcome.

The detectives asked if a Franklin Reginald Walters lived at this address. I answered yes – hope springs eternal – and invited them into the house. “I regret to inform you,” He began, “We found Reggie near a trash dumpster,” his addictions had gained a temporal victory over him. I’m not sure what else the detective said, but I did have the presence of mind to ask for a number I could call in the morning.

When your heart and soul and spirit have been shaken like this (when a such a deep bond has been severed), for a time, sort of like the chicken with its head cut off, you flounder around not realizing or totally comprehending that there is no longer a connection.

Where do you turn?

I found that connection in the WORD of God. In Isaiah, the 6th Chapter, the Word says:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. (ESV)

Several sources indicate that Isaiah had a close connection with King Uzziah, perhaps he was the King’s scribe, and the King’s death had a strong effect on the prophet.

The LORD brought to my remembrance that in the last couple of months of his life, Reggie never missed church. In fact, when Brenda and I would prepare to leave in the morning, Reggie would be waiting and ready to go (he lived with us the last year or so of his life). The LORD showed me how he struggled with his addiction (two trips to rehab in two years). The LORD showed me again of his deep love for me, his mom, and his brothers. Rummaging through paperwork from his rehabilitation, I came across a question the instructors had asked of the participants: “What has your addiction cost you?”

His answer? – A great relationship with my Dad

It still makes me teary just to think of that.

I know how much Reggie loved the LORD. I baptized him when he was eight years old. Did he have struggles in his walk? Of course, he did. We all do. But he never stopped believing, and on the last day he attended church (December 19th) he left this prayer request (which Pastor Omar gave to me):

“Please pray that I would have wisdom in what future steps I should take in my life.”

So, in the year that Reggie died, I saw the LORD. Oh, I had known him for many years, but not to the level that I know him now.

When I was in college, my mom planned to come and visit me. It was a seven- hundred-mile drive from Gary, Indiana to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but her baby was in Oklahoma, and she wanted to see him. Well, Reggie is in heaven, and I plan to see him (that’s why I said the victory over him was temporal). And just like my mom who read all she could about Oklahoma, kept an eye on the weather there, mapped the route she would take to get there because that was her planned destination, I am learning about my destination, where Reggie and my mom are waiting.

By faith [Abraham] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:9-10 (ESV)