Mike’s Musings …
And May He Rest in Peace
We met some forty-eight years ago, the first time I had been to Yale, IL, to preach. That year, if memory serves me, two were immersed into Christ, and two restored to Christ. Following that meeting, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve preached there and how many precious souls obeyed the gospel during those efforts. What I do remember is that not a few of those souls are related to the late Rex Hickox.
Rex was a farmer. He had cattle and planted corn and beans, and I remember he had combined several acres of red clover one year. He and his wife, Rosemary, celebrated some seventy-one years of marriage before her passing in 2018. They had eight children (five boys and three girls), twenty-three grandchildren, and sixty-four great-grandchildren (with two more on the way!) But the greatest thing is that Rex and Rosemary raised their family to be Christians, and to this day, most of them have (including the grandchildren) have remained faithful!
For many years, Rex served as an elder with the Yale church of Christ. In the last several years, he and his wife had worshipped with the Lord’s church at Walnut Chapel. Just a year ago, I had the honor of preaching there and enjoyed a good visit with Rex.
Rex wasn’t a perfect man by any means and admitted it! Many years ago, we sat in his living room and reasoned for an entire day about sin and its consequences. He retained a respected reputation and respected those who endeavored to be respectful.
One of Rex’s sons, Donald, is deceased. Don had served as an elder at the Olney, IL, church of Christ. Now, two of his sons are elders in the Lord’s church at Walnut Chapel. One of his grandsons, Michael, preaches for the Lord’s church at Olney. As you can tell, he and his wife worked hard to instill in their children the necessity of serving God aright in all they say and do!
I muse on such men as Rex and consider myself blessed to have known many like him in my life. I’m further blessed to be friends with his family … including many of his grandchildren. But the greatest blessing is knowing we share Christ. It is His blood that is more precious than any blood of the flesh. To have Christ is to have everything; to be without Christ is to be the most poverty-stricken of all creation! Yes, we’ll all die unless the Lord returns first. But to die in the Lord … there is no greater comfort afforded any soul! Thus, it is my prayer that Rex, “rest from his labors and his works follow him.” (Revelation 14:13)