In January, our family lost an amazing couple. Majors Dana & Ruth Brown were my wife’s grandparents (great-grandparents to my children, and my grandparents by marriage). After 67 years of marriage, they died just two days apart. Dana was a prayer warrior, had a great sense of humor, and loved studying scripture and theology. He loved the Lord with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength. Ruth was strong without being overpowering, straightforward but not impolite, inquisitive but not intrusive, and holy but never being holier than thou. She lived her life with her heart to God and her hand to mankind.

After Dana was already a World War II veteran, after he had already spent a year and a half in a hospital recovering from wounds he received in conflict (for which he later earned a Purple Heart), and after he and Ruth had already established a family, a career, and a living, the Lord took hold of their lives. At the center of their lives was a calling, and they served as Salvation Army Officers (ordained ministers) for thirty years before retiring in 1986.

On January 20, 2014, we conducted a celebration of life service for both of them together. It was fitting that we remembered them together, not apart, but it was a difficult day for all of us. As the family gathered in Maine to remember them, we came across these words, written by the family patriarch, hanging on a wall in their home. It is simply entitled, “The Way of the Cross.” We are grateful for the legacy handed down from one generation to another expressed in these words.

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There is a way that seems right to a man, but it leads to a dead-end of death.

Christians have been introduced to a better way – The Way of the Cross. It is God’s way of holiness for us who are being saved by it. We recognize the Cross as the very power of God.

We bid farewell to the way of the world and go by the way of the Cross where we have a better hope established on better promises.

The way of the Cross leads to paths of righteousness and fellowship with God where we enjoy a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ unto an inheritance of a permanent house in Heaven made by God. It is beyond the reach of change and decay and is reserved in Heaven for you – the people of the Way.

The Way of the Cross leads home!!

– Major F. Dana Brown (1921-2014), culled from Scripture and Song