One-third of the world’s population identify as Christians. Shopping centers urge us to celebrate the birth of Jesus by buying and bestowing gifts. It’s our way of declaring that Jesus Christ was born.
Luke, a physician, is the only gentile author in the New Testament. Sixty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, he wrote one of the Gospels and the Book of Acts. Luke was not present at the birth of Jesus, but he conscientiously collected details from eyewitnesses as a physician gathers a challenging medical history.
Years ago, David Balch left a successful law practice in the mid-west and came to Charlottesville to start a Men’s Bible Class. The original class 6-8 students (including my friend John Ray) met at Aunt Sarah’s Pancake House on Pantops Mountain. Eventually, the Bible Class outgrew the Pancake House and moved to Trinity Presbyterian Church, founded by Skip Ryan, an intelligent, gifted minister.
Dottie and I purchased a piece of cut-over mountain land, called it a farm, and soon were working a cow-calf operation. It was akin to wrestling a whale under water. We joined Trinity to save our souls and our minds.
God, family, Trinity, and the Men’s Bible Class spiritually nourished us back to health. Membership of the Bible Class over the years has reached as high as 60. I invited my friend, Dennis Womack, UVA’s Baseball Coach for 26 years, the first to win the ACC Title.
Dave Balch eventually moved away and Waugh Crigler, a Federal Judge, took over as teacher of the Men’s Bible Class. My work took me to Fort Lee, and during my absence, the class was opened to women. Covid forced us from the First Baptist Church to Zoom.
Both Dave Balch and Waugh Crigler were first-rate biblical teachers.
Several Christmases ago, Waugh read the following:
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Like 2:8-14.
“Basically, the word host refers to a great number of individuals or to an army. Modified by the word heavenly, hosts become a great number of angelic beings forming a celestial army under God’s command. There is a suggestion of rank and orderliness, of companies and divisions within that heavenly army. The heavenly hosts were created by God and are controlled by God.”
This will be my 93rd Christmas, God permitting. Until Waugh Crigler told the class that an army of God’s angels filled the sky declaring the arrival of God as Jesus, I had never experienced the reverence this once in eternity event rightly deserves.
A native of Culpeper, Virginia, Waugh played high school football, attended Washington and Lee University and graduated from its School of Law. Both he and Ann, devoted Christians, were good people. Waugh’s hobby was growing English Boxwoods from tiny shoots.
After an arduous and painfully difficult battle with pancreatic cancer, Waugh died in the spring of 2023. The last few days of his life were extremely difficult. He survived on his faith in God. All of us who faithfully attended his Zoom Bible Class prayed our sincerest prayers for Waugh.
I thought of the Little Drummer Boy, the Christmas carol about the child who had nothing to give but his music. What can I give, I asked myself. “You can compose a poem for Waugh.” It is what I do when I try to honor a person.
Immediately, I sat at my computer and prayed for healing words to share with Waugh. Minutes after writing the poem and emailing it to Waugh, he phoned me and said, “Bob, why do you always reach my heart with your words?” Two men fought back their tears, but somehow, I said, “It’s because I love you, Waugh. The words came from my heart for your heart. God be with you.” Several days later, Waugh entered heaven where he was healed forever.
I Think…
I think I’m goanna be sad
I think it could be any day
A man I love is going away
But I want him to stay
God’s love is taking him away
He’s getting wings anyway
In an instant as Jesus said
With me you’re never dead
Though your body is shed
You live, a continuous thread
Your life with Me never ends
You’ll be with family and friends
Honorable B. Waugh Crigler
Judge, attorney, never a quibbler
Teacher of God’s word supreme
You’ll dance with Ann and beam
I think I’m goanna try not to be sad
If this were a bad dream; I’d be glad
Love, Bob and Dottie Brown, April 21, 2023; Downtown Crozet, Virginia. Waugh’s poem appears in Your Innermost Poetry, Spiritual Bliss, Robert S. Brown, 2024
“God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” the title of a hymn by William Cowper, 1774. A year before Waugh Crigler’s death, I invited my neighbor and former UVA student to our Bible Class. Waugh wisely and with spiritual guidance, asked Stuart Revercomb to replace him as our Bible Class teacher.
May the Army of God’s Angels fill your heart with the only news in the world too good to be true that is truly, really, and absolutely true.
Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.
