The Surfboard - - A tribute to Ed Kruger

Ed's last picture 

2 Corinthians 13:4, "For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you." My brother in law Ed Kruger for years has struggled with a very ugly alcohol addiction. One that left him in very fragile health. Yet even though he feel off the wagon a thousand times, time and time again I saw him battling the demon, and on occasion winning a battle. Yet in spite of this epic struggle, in spite of a separate economic ruin, Ed Kruger was foremost of all a father so very worthy of admiration. Ed loved his children as much as any man I know. He was proud of his jay-hawk daughter Sara. He went to endless measures to support his now teen age son Blake in racing, athletics, and life. And his 8 year old son was his best bud, and shadow. They often were found at the beach together fishing, or Ed teaching him to surf on pawn shop purchased surfboard. Nothing extravagant, Ed bought it for a few hundred at most. Who knows why but for whatever reason Ed liked to visit pawn shops and capture the occasional deal. This past weekend was no different than any other weekend as Ed and Blake went to Galveston for a little surfing. On the way home Ed decided to stop into a surf shop. He did that kind of thing, always stopping at some random place. Not wanting the surf board to be stolen from the back of the truck he and his boy carried it into the shop. There they met the proprietor who according to Ed was a Christian man. Somehow the gentleman told Ed his story of winning the battle of addiction, and somewhere in the conversation he asked Ed if he knew what kind of surfboard he had. Ed had no idea, but the surf shop owner did. The surfboard was a very rare board. In fact may from a wood that is banned from competition. And apparently the board is worth perhaps tens of thousands of dollars. Later the man's wife came out and said that Ed looked like a buoy to her. "A buoy?" Ed asked. Apparently to this woman Ed looked like a man without direction. Almost lost a sea looking for something. When I heard this story on Sunday I first thought how awesome is God to reach out to Ed with His love like that. The admiration was quickly replaced with jealousy over the blessing. The jealousy was obliterated today with grief as my brother in law died from a heart attack this afternoon. The text arrived from my mom. It said, "pray." As I prayed, asking God to spare his life, begging God to spare his life the Holy Spirit said to me many times, "He lives." I cried so hard because I knew He was saying, "He lives with Me." It's not fare. It hurts like hell. Anger, sadness, fear, hurt flood my soul and the souls of his family. There are three children tonight hurting far more than me. But Ed Kruger lives... not because Ed overcame his weakness, but because Christ did. Tonight he lives... tonight and every night from here on with Christ. To Christ Ed is that very rare, priceless surfboard. And like the collector Christ has decided there will be no more surfing the world for Ed. Oh know Christ has brought him home to a place of honor. God bless you Ed. We love you, and are going to miss you.