Buddy Wood’s life honored God and impacted me in two clearly obvious ways. He lived well and he died well. Long before he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer on Nov. 28, 2006, Buddy was a man devoted to knowing, loving, and serving God with his time and resources. He had many gifts and used them all for God’s glory.

He had an insightful intelligence that allowed him to see through the chaos and clearly define the heart of a problem; a simple way of explaining complicated truths so that everyone could understand; a love for God’s word that woke him daily with that “Christmas morning” excitement to get up and study for hours before beginning his workday; a desperate yearning to teach God’s truths that led him, many years ago, to say to one of the pastors at IBC, “I’ve just got to teach; have you got a place I can fit in?”; and a desire to love and encourage his brothers and sisters in Christ. He was not a plaster saint; he was humble, fun-loving Buddy from Mississippi—just as likely to crack a joke as to quote a scripture. Sound perfect? Maybe that’s because this is his adoring wife writing.

Truthfully, he was an ordinary man who made mistakes like all of us but he was a man who left a powerful legacy of how to live well and how to die well. Those who watched him found encouragement and hope that God is who He says He is—that He does “garrison” the soul of His faithful ones with “the peace that passes understanding” regardless of how many tumors are growing in their brains and bodies. And, as they watched, he crossed earth’s final threshold into God’s glorious presence ever anxious to begin his next great adventure.

By Penny Wood