The Face of Seraphim

By C. E. French

Growing up in church and the tragedy of my sister losing a one- and six-year-old children leading to a family crisis about who God is. The resulting biblical study about God and the love he has shown us through Jesus Christ and the amazing things that I discovered about the opening of the seven seals in Revelations. The book reveals more of who Christ is and more of the character of man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798218349837

Book preview

Chapter 1 Church –Seven Seals

Memories flood my thinking at times when I’m not busy performing a task. The fact that I’m old now means less tasks and more time for the flood of yesterday. My first memory in Church was lying on mother’s lap and she had a fan in her hand trying to keep everyone cool. We were at Shell Knob as we always were in the summer fishing and in the fall deer hunt. Mom’s two sisters lived in this Ozark community, and we knew everyone. Aunt Wanda played the piano and sang. She had a beautiful voice. The guys never darkened the door of the old country church, but mom, my sister Becky and I were there. I don’t have a memory of Becky at this event. Just mom and the fan. It was so hot, stifling hot with no air conditioner, only the fan. Everyone had a fan. The fans had advertising on them, usually from the funeral home. The service was always long when the preaching started. I would listen for the closing (every head bowed and every eye closed). Most of the time those country preachers would miss several good stopping points. I could tell even as a child when the preacher would gain a second wind. So could everyone else as the fans would move faster for just a little while, then back to their regular pace.

The next event that will always be a memory in that old country church in Shell Knob was when I got older and could sit with my cousins. I was the youngest and the smallest. I’d spent the night at Uncle Espen’s place. They would put us upstairs in a featherbed mattress. My cousins being older, they knew, and I was always put in the middle of that featherbed mattress (no fan). Even on the coldest frost-bitten star twinkling night, you were in a sweat in that featherbed. William E. had a cow we would ride, it was some kind of Jersey cow, that was very gentle and all three of the cousins could sit and ride a cow. Getting to Uncle Espen’s place was going down the backroads and cross a creek driving across the shoal and parallel with the shoal. If the weather was rainy and there would be more rain the creek would be too high to cross the creek and you had to head up the mountain and along the ridge to the State highway. William E did tours in Viet Nam came back and took to drinking and he died very young. Steve went to college married his childhood sweetheart had two girls and tons of grandchildren (He made good decisions) I’d sit in the back of the church (that old country church) and we did not listen to the preaching. We dared not talk as that would have gotten us in a heap of trouble. I’d watch William E pick wasps off a blue stained-glass window and not get stung. I learned that a wasp can only sting one way (not like a yellow jacket or hornet). William E would pick up a wasp off that window, hold him by his back wings and not get stung, then easy as could be set that wasp back on the window. I really thought that was cool but had no courage to try it myself. Distracted by heat and a relationship with my cousins. I can’t tell you a word that preacher preached. I did appreciate and remember the songs of my Aunt Wanda, she could really, really sing.

Sit up straight don’t slouch your posture is very important. Mother would recite this phrase to her children more than once. Our main church was in a large city with relatives in surrounding farm towns. The city was large, but our church was very small. The years of training were upon me. We went to Sunday School and mother was also a teacher. So, Becky and I would also get our lessons at home. Becky was nine years older, and I’m sure needed more instruction. While Ironing clothes on the ironing board. Mother would teach the bible stories to her children and as the youngest I would listen. There would be discussion and questions and the ability to ask why. I would also get instruction from other teachers who taught the middle youth. I had only one problem and that was my friend Nick, who was a year older than myself. We could not get together without cutting up. We started out the year in the back row, then got moved to sit with some other youth, and then to the front row. Even that did no good, we still got tickled and start laughing. Nick and I were a church problem. They talked to us several times, but we didn’t catch on. The Sunday I’ll never forget is when Nick and I started our behavioral issues and mother who sang in the choir pointed a finger at us and snapped her finger. We didn’t respond, but I think we did try. Nick’s mom (where she came from I don’t know) had slipped in behind us, and I heard the sound of what sounded like a shot. It was Nick’s ear, as his mother Miss Betty had flipped the back of Nick’s ear. I was next and tears came to my eyes. I’d been in plenty of fights at school, won some lost some, but never took a whipping like that back of the ear flip. I’ve wondered how Miss Betty learned to hit so hard. Sit up straight don’t slouch your poster is very important. The era and saga of me and Nick being an issue at church was over. There was unity in our church, as they worked together.

That began the era where I finally started to listen to the preacher. We already asked why at home on the Bible, and I knew the stories. When you begin to listen, you begin to learn. Those Preachers felt it was the duty of the minister to preach Adam and Eve with the man being the head of the household and Eve being deceived first. I noticed that Adam was not the tower of power, but blamed Eve in his defense to God. I never said anything as I was still working on my posture. I did understand the theory to promote leadership among men, but I did notice the