What happened to Luke?

When you hear the name Luke, who do you think of? Some people immediately think of Luke Skywalker. Not me, I was not a big fan of those movies.

Others think of Luke and Laura.

Oh come on confess. I know there are a few General Hospital fans out there. Ok ok I will go first. Many years ago, in the time of Like and Laura, I was a General Hospital junkie. For about an entire year, I watched General Hospital without fail every day. Those days are behind me now though but I remember them well.

Still others (myself included) when hearing the name Luke think of the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.


But soon thereafter I think of Matthew, Mark and Mike. Which brings me to my subject for the day. "What happened to Luke?"

My Aunt and Uncle had two boys. Their names were Matthew and Mark. When we heard that they were expecting another child, we just knew if it were a boy they would name him Luke. They did have a boy but they named him Mike instead. We all thought she was on a Biblical theme but it turns out she was on the M train. I can’t say I have heard the name Mike mentioned in the Bible. Maybe it was but I just can’t remember it. And Mike was anything but Biblical.

One summer we went to visit them in upstate NY. So there were 6 of us boys and our parents staying together in a two story house. They lived on a highway outside of town and there were no other houses for miles in any direction. One afternoon during our stay, our parents decided to go into town and have dinner. They left me in charge which was no big deal because what trouble could six unsupervised boys get into out in the country. There was also an abandoned apple orchard next to the house. So to pass the time we decided to go “exploring” in the orchard. Well one thing lead to another and before I knew it, each of us had a large pile of apples waiting on the first unsuspecting motorist to come by.

The first to arrive was an older model car with only an old woman passenger and a younger man driving. We bombarded the car as it went past and several apples found their target. The car slowed down but then went on. Next coming up the road was a large semi-truck. There was a huge hill in front of us so the truck was forced to slow down making it an easy target. I think we were 6 for 6 on this one and we quickly reloaded and hit it again. This time the truck stopped and began backing down the highway on the shoulder.

We left our posts and ran through the orchard and into the house. There we sat quietly with all the doors locked as the truck came to a stop in front of the house. How did he know it was us? Well duh, since we were at the only house within miles it was pretty obvious. I got everyone together and we agreed that if we just kept quiet he would go away. He was a huge trucker dude about 6’ tall, weighing around 300 lbs. He was covered in tattoos and had one that said “I hate kids”. At least that is what we suspected. I was too scared to look. After knocking on the door and not getting any answer he finally began to walk away. Sweat was running down my forehead. Too close for comfort I thought to myself. That’s when I heard him. Mike that was.

Let me stop here and tell you that their parents were what you could call morally liberal. They had few rules and didn’t believe in discipline. The two older boys had done a great job of teaching Mike every curse word known to man and the parents thought it was cute. Mike was a tiny boy with a big mouth.

Mike had climbed out of his bedroom window and was on the roof of the porch.
“Come back you dumb %#@* and fight like a man. He yelled.
“That’s right you big *%&$. We can take you. There are 6 of us in here.”

The man stopped and turned around and started to come back to the house but ended up just shaking his head and walking away. We all ran up to the bedroom in an attempt to shut Mike up and get him to come back inside. Mike continued to taunt the big man calling him a big %$#* coward for walking away. I have never felt so relieved as when he finally drove away.

A few hours later our parents came home. We were all sitting in the living room watching TV like little angles. My Aunt asked how it went and what we did. Mark spoke up and said that we just watched TV and nothing special happened. My Aunt smiled and said: that’s great, we are just glad you didn’t throw apples at cars or trucks. Oops busted. It seems that the old woman and her son and also the trucker both stopped at the only restaurant in town for dinner. News travels fast in a small town.

And speaking of Mark, I just started reading it. You know, the book that follows Matthew. I love the story of how Jesus healed the leper. After he healed him, Jesus told him not to tell anyone about it but to simply go live a good life. The leper though went out and told everyone what had happened, which forced Jesus to stay out of the large towns from then on. I wish the woman and the trucker had kept quiet. My Aunt and Uncle had to stay out of town for a while after that little incident too. And now you see why I say that Mike was anything but Biblical.

Have a great day,
Greg