Clatie Nichols
December 3, 2005
Although Clatie Nichols made his entrance into the world on February 3rd, 1920 in the huge suburb of Country Park outside of Little Rock Arkansas, God had taken note of his presence in heaven a long time before that.
For the Scriputes tell us in Psalm 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
In 1919, While the world was busy wrapping up the affairs of WWI and the KKK was plotting a revival, God was deciding to make a mighty man. In our Old Testament we read of three of David’s mighty men. What made them mighty was their willingness to give their all for a cause.
When God had in mind a mighty man, God was not contemplating one who could slay great numbers of men in battle. God was creating a man who could slay just one man in order to become a mighty. You see a mighty from God’s perspective is somewhat different from our own. God wanted a mighty man, one whose children would rise up and call him blessed and be able to say I thank God for my father and his example.
A mighty man would be one whose grandchildren would rise up and stick out their shoulders to the world proclaiming that’s my grandfather and would be inspired to write a poem entitled A Super Black Man. A mighty man would be one who could forsake all else to be true to his vows that he made when he said in sickness and in health till death do us part. You see the one man a mighty man has to slay is himself. He has to forget about pleasing himself and attach his purpose to the lives of others. For Jesus said, greater love has no one than this, but that he should lay down his life for his friend.
One of the most encouraging things about walking with God is knowing that God has a plan and a purpose for your life. Although we are under the illusion that our lives are going to go on and on, God tells us from the start, that our days are numbered, and to use wisdom with how we spend them. We receive 25,567 days if we lived to be 70. There is a day out there on the calendar in which we shall all surely die We can be assured that one day we will stand before God , and we will be judged for the way in which we have used our days. Have you thought recently about how many days you have left.
God is never going to ask us about how somebody else used up their days. We hear all the time about the person who will not go to church because he or she does not want to be in the church with the hypocrites. Not only do they fail to understand hypocrites need the message of the gospel, but God is not impressed with their decision to cut Him out of their lives. God is only going to ask us to answer for us, because we do not all start at the same point in life, nor do we have the same opportunities, gifts, talents, or skills.
God created each one of us to be us, in our relationship to Him. He never intended for any of us to remain as we are, but for all of us to be changed by the power of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus put it this way, “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”
We are celebrating today, because Clatie Nichols entered into a personal relationship with Jesus, and allowed Jesus to live in and through him before he left this world. When we look at Clatie’s life, two of the words that have to come to mind are persistence and perseverance.
He was a hard working man, laying down his life to take care of his family by often working two jobs. As a family of 8 the Nichols, may not have had the best things of life, but they did have the best things in life. They had love, they had care, and they had parents who loved each other and them. God blessed Annie Lee and Clayton with six kids. Five boys and one girl, or a beautiful single rose among five thorns as Yvonne likes to describe her and her brothers.
In the Bible Adam and Jesus are often contrasted. Clatie decided to take a piece of each as part of his personality. In the beginning God told Adam, to name all the animals. Clatie took this job seriously for himself, and felt it necessary to give everybody nick names some of which you liked and some of which you didn’t.
When Jesus wanted to make a point with the disciples, he would tell them parables of stories. When Clatie wanted to make a point with you, he often would tell you a story that could rival Jesus’ stories And just like the disciples were confused when Jesus finished speaking, you could enjoy Claties’s stories and not have the faintest idea what his point was.
Clatie was a hard working man. The only think wrong with hard working people is they expect you to work hard too. Clatie ran a service station. God blessed him with five boys what a gift. He immediately saw five built in snow removal machines for the service stations driveway and lot. His sons were eager to find work, anywhere other than with their father, because they knew they would not have to work nearly as hard anywhere else.
Clatie had a heart for animals especially dogs. He went from a boxer, to a german shepherd, to a Doberman. Now when the Doberman had puppies, Yvonne’s brothers all took one. So imagine being a house with a bunch of doberman’s at times.
One day during their courting days, Rufus came over to see Yvonne who was in the kitchen cooking. Rufus rang the doorbell, and Yvonne told him to come on in. She waited for him to come , but he didn’t. Then she heard a litlle voice saying. Yvonne—Somebody—Please Help. She went into the living room only to discover Rufus never past the room,. He was shivering for his life unexpectedly surrounded by the Doberman’s.
But Clatie came to have a real love for Rufus. He asked Rufus to help him get a bolt off from underneath the car. Rufus got under the car, and put the wrench on the bolt. He pulled it, but somehow something went wrong and the wrench slipped and somehow Rufus cut has harm with blood gushing all over his arm. When Clatie saw it, he was deeply moved to compassion and he looked at the blood on Rufus’s arm and asked, “were you able to loosen the bolt.”
Clatie was a man that could be very funny at times. He was a man that loved you in his own special way. He had a special love for his sisters. He was the kind of man that would reach out to embrace you with his love, but if you didn’t return it, he didn’t hold it against you.
We all leave legacies behind that determine our greatness or our lack of it. If you were to die today, and look back over your life, where will your legacy lie. I chose the New Testament reading that I did, because the legacy of Clatie Nichols is going to forever be lodged in his relationship to his wife and to his children. The passage began with Husbands love your wives and it ended with fathers bring your children up in the training and the instruction of the Lord.
Clatie’s legacy is left behind in the way he loved and cared for his wife and in the way he loved and cared for his children and his grandchildren. He not only wanted his children to succeed, he was man enough to be there to help make it happen. He didn’t care how many hours he had to work, he made it known that if any of his children wanted to go to college, a lack of money was not going to stop them. I tell you he was mighty man.
He instilled in his children early what it was to have discipline and respect. He didn’t allow them to act the fool and talk about wasn’t that cute. Woe to the child who did not have enough respect for the left hand of Clatie Nichols. The idea of talking back had better just an idea tucked way in the back of your mind.
As a parent he meant what he said, and he said what he meant. You knew if advance where he stood and what was expected and not expected of you. He was determined to get his children to take responsibility for themselves. He made it clear, there’s no use complaining about something if you’re not willing to do something about it. He told them time and time again, nobody is going to give you anything, and if they do be careful because the strings that come with acceptance, might be too great a price to pay. The brother worked for a living and he expected everybody else to do the same. He didn’t consider any work to be minimal. He not only worker, he excelled on his jobs so that others would want to have him as an employee.
Clatie’s greatest legacy didn’t come by itself. It had its roots in a romance with a girl he grew up knowing. Clatie and Annie Lee’s marriage of over 50 years is a tribute to all couples everywhere. For it shows that marriage vows are to be taken seriously.
There is no doubt they had struggles in their marriage. Having one child is a tension in marriage, but having six of them can really test your endurance, especially when you’re in a small house. Working one job is enough to keep you on edge, but working two jobs can cause tempers to flare in an instant. So you know there was a lot of love, a lot of forgiveness, and a lot of letting go of a lot of things for the good of the marriage and for the love of each other.
What do you do when you’re strong and healthy, and the person you’re married to is going downhill health wise. What do you do when you get the news that your partner has Alzheimer’s, and that things will only get worse. What do you do when the one person who has given herself to you countless times, needs you more than ever but can promise you almost nothing in return?
You become a mighty man and you remember your vows, “in sickness and in health” till death do us part. You remember the words, “Husbands love your wives as Christ, loved the church and gave up his life for her.” You remember Jesus saying, “greater love has no one than this, that you lay down your life for your friend.”
Annie was his lover, his wife, and his friend for over 30 years. There were times when she had to give beyond a 100% to keep their marriage and their family intact. She now needed him to make up for the part that she could no longer give in their marriage.
Clatie rose up to the task. He gave the next 20 years of himself to his wife’s personal care through her battle with Alzheimer’s determined that this marriage would be till death do us part. With loving arms he bather her, with gentle touches he dressed her, with patience he fed her, with care he turned her in the bed. He became a man filled with compassion.
He took the time to gently exercised her joints. Me massaged her muscles to help with her circulation. He caressed her with lotion her from head to toe to keep her skin looking beautiful. He spoke softly and tenderly to her even when she could not speak back. He had a system for taking care of his wife from before dawn till night. Whenever he left to go out of town, he would only allow himself a short time away before he had to get back home to Sweets.
The health professionals could not believe the level of care that he provided for his wife. Some thought he had received some kind of professional training. They all attributed the number of years that Annie lived, with the love and devotion that she received from this mighty man.
From whence did he find the love and the strength to do what He did. As the psalmist, “ my help and my strength came from the Lord.” Clatie Nichols found his strength in Jesus Christ. In making a commitment to Christ, God gave him a strength that he would not have otherwise known.
When you visited his home, Clatie had surround gospel with five radio’s on at the same time with all five on the same gospel station. He wanted to stay in touch with the word of God. If you ever invited him to dinner, if you were hungry you might not want to ask Clatie Nichols to say the blessing.
Cause once he got going with his thanks to God, he took the time to thank God for just about everything and everybody by name. You see when you have gone through something, you start to appreciate what everybody else simply takes for granted. You become a mighty man by remembering to say thanks to God.
Toward the end of his life, when the nurses and doctors would enter the room Clatie, would try to keep them from doing anything else for him. One nurse had the insight to say, “it is almost as if he knows he’s going to a better place, and we’re intervening to keep him from getting there.”
Yes my friends, he was going and has gone to a better place, for Jesus said to his followers, John 14:1-3
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. [2] In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
We may say Clatie Nichols was my friend, he was my uncle, he was my brother,, or he was my husband, but the greatest truth of them all is that he was a child of God who has now completely returned to God. For those of us who die without knowing Jesus Christ , Clatie Nichols will only be a memory, a very good and loving memory. But for those of us who do know Jesus Christ, Clatie Nichols is simply waiting to meet us on the other side. .
Clatie is ready to stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, and desires to hear the words, "Well done thou good and faithful servant enter into the joy of my kingdom." We need not wonder what the future holds for Clatie for he died in Christ.
But what about you. Because you see in the end, it really is not going to matter what kind of car you drove, how much money you had in stocks and bonds, how beautiful or handsome you were, or even how giving and loving you have been in life. In the end, what really matters is, did you prepare during this life to meet God.
When it comes to entering into heaven Jesus said in , Mat 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way to enter that narrow gate. All you have to do is to admit, "God, I have done a lot of things I should not have done. I realize I cannot pay for all that I have done. I ask you for forgiveness. I accept that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He being holy and righteous, paid the penalty for my sin.
I invite him to come into my life and take control of it."
When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he not only paid the penalty for our sins, he conquered death and promised us eternal life if we would believe in Him and follow in his footsteps. Clatie Nichols is more alive now than he ever was, and one day we shall be with him. For the Bible clearly teaches,
1 Th 4:13 Brothers and sisters , we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men and women, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
