My friend Andrew suffered a life-changing accident but gained comfort from being a Christian
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COLUMN: Food for Thought by Sandy Sutherland
I had the privilege last October of conducting the funeral services, at Fortrose and Scourie, of Andrew MacKay (1947-2021).
Andrew was widely known and greatly respected for his indomitable spirit in the face of the tragedy that befell him.
He hailed from Scourie, the son of the late Donald William MacKay, a Rogart native, and Scourie born Agnes (nee MacLeod).
Andrew attended Sutherland Technical School and made many lifelong friends, not least with Nicol Manson of Brora, who recalled in his funeral tribute: “We both played in the tech football team which was run by James K. Bell who was an avid Motherwell F.C. supporter.
“Our football strip was the same colours as the Motherwell one of that era, black and yellow hoops, which made us look like bumble bees with legs.”
Nicol further recalled that Andrew was taken on by a bespoke carpentry firm, Mackenzie’s of Inverness, where he came under the wing of Stromness man James Angus, an ex-Seaforth Highlander of high standards and a skilled craftsman. Andrew received an excellent grounding for his future career.
As a fully-fledged bespoke carpenter, Andrew joined Gilbert Ash (Scotland) in 1968 and was sent to work on the new school hostel in Kirkwall.
He immediately signed on for the hostel football team and it wasn’t long before he asked Nicol, by then a qualified joiner, to join him on the project and not to forget to pack his football boots!
Sadly in 1972, when Andrew was working in the Glasgow area, a winter’s journey home to Scourie resulted in a life-changing road accident which left him paralysed from the waist down.
The family home at Greenhill, Scourie, was adapted to suit his needs, but he later moved to Dornoch and, with the help of friends, set up his own wooden craftwork project.
After his parents passed away in the mid-1980s, Andrew moved to live near to his sister Doreen and her family in Fortrose.
It was here that I first met him in 2002. We became instant friends. both having Sutherland and Scourie connections, an interest in football and, especially, our Christian kindred spirit as brothers in Christ.
Andrew’s indefatigable spirit had a Christian confidence: he knew he would walk again! This resurrection hope to new life for the body as well as the soul is wishful thinking to many and to others it is spiritual presumption.
However, the apostles, in their New Testament epistles, often use the words “we know”. Thereby, when God wants us to be presumptuous, we can be presumptuous! Take, for example, 2 Corinthians 5:1, where the apostle Paul writes: “We know that if this earthly tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
The apostle is not suggesting that our present bodies are not from God or of no value but rather that the resurrection body will be as a strong, permanent “house” as opposed to living in the fragility and impermanence of a “tent” in the stormy uncertainties of this life.
Jesus Christ’s humanity, once so vulnerable, is now inviolable: his crucified body rose from the dead and walked, promising the same for all who trust in him.
“Until we meet again and the shadows flee away.”
Sandy Sutherland is a retired minister living in Brora.
