This is Jim Denison's daily article for Tuesday, December 4th, 2018. Man tries to rescue Christmas

decoration. A veteran named Alfred Norwood Jr. was walking past a home in Austin, Texas when

he saw a man dangling from a second-story roof. He immediately stopped to help, trying unsuccessfully

to use a ladder that was leaning against the home. He then called to people who were passing by, but no one stopped to help, so he called 911. It turned out, the man, in danger, was a mannequin meant to look like Clark Griswold in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's so realistic that it's easy to see how Mr. Norwood was fooled. The homeowners tracked the veteran down and thanked him. One pointed out that

hundreds of cars go past their house every day, but he was the only person to stop and help.

A reporter commented, It's nice to know there are still good people in this world who care.

Let's consider Mr. Norwood's experience as a parable for our day.

President George H.W. Bush's body is lying in state today in the U.S. Capitol.

It will remain there until tomorrow morning when it will be taken to Washington National Cathedral for a state funeral.

Tomorrow afternoon, the body will be transported to President Bush's church in Houston for a service Thursday morning,

followed by a burial that afternoon. His services are being conducted as a military operation befitting a war hero. They involve

military units coordinating movements in at least three states and the District of Columbia.

The procedures are detailed in a 133-page manual titled State, Official, and Special Military

Funerals. As many as 4,000 military and defense department civilian personnel will be involved

in some capacity.

Mr. Bush was prepared to die.

He knew that life is uncertain and death is coming for us all, unless Jesus returns first.

Unlike the former president, our culture does all it can to avoid the subject of mortality.

Like those who passed by the mannequin in Austin, we drive by dying people every moment

of every day,

but we evade the issue of death as if such denial could prevent its reality.

We're like people who find a lump, but refuse to see a doctor because we're afraid of what he or she might tell us.

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