When Death Is All Around: Reminders of Truth for My Dad and Mom (and Us, Too)

When Death Is All Around: Reminders

Of Truth for My Dad and Mom (And Us, Too)

 

Last Saturday night at about 11:00 P.M. my mother's best friend, Betty Welch, died of ovarian cancer that had spread rapidly in her aged body.  It was a blessing for Betty.  Mom had known Betty for 70 years, having gone through nurses' training as young women in St. Paul, MN.  And for almost as long, Dad was a very close friend of Pete Welch as they went through college and seminary together after the war.  Mom married Dad and Pete married Betty and they were great friends for life.  Now Betty has gone to be with Jesus and Pete is in very frail health.  And Mom and Dad are very sad.

 

The news about Betty hit especially hard, but dying is all around my parents' now.  They are 87 and 88 years old and live in a senior adult community, Trail Ridge, in Sioux Falls, SD.  Almost every week we hear from them that a friend at Trail Ridge has died.  Death is all around.

 

So in grateful appreciation for Betty's life (and Pete's, both dear followers of Christ), I am writing this to remind my parents of Scriptural encouragement they know very well and have given to others over 60+ span of ministry years.  I am adapting my thoughts from Edward Mote's hymn, The Solid Rock.

 

Dear Daddy and Momma,

 

As you experience weakness and fragile health in these "wintertime of life" years, with reminders of death and love all around you:

 

Keep on building your hope on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, not even daring to trust the sweetest circumstances, but wholly leaning on Jesus' name.  Stand on Christ, your Solid Rock; all other ground is sinking sand.

 

When darkness (like awareness of the enemy of death) sets in and seems to veil the Lord's face, rest in His unchanging grace.  Even in the saddest and most difficult times, your anchor will hold.

 

His oath, covenant and blood will support you in the floods of this life, and when it feels like your soul is about to give way, He is all your hope and strength.

 

The day is coming when Christ will come back, announced with trumpet call; and because you are His, you'll be found in Him.  With His righteousness as your robe, you'll stand faultless before His Throne.

 

You know this hymn, I know.  But here it is for you to sing day by day, for your hope in our living Savior and King!

 

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name."

 

Refrain

 

"On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand."

 

"When darkness hides His lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil."

 

"His oath, His covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood;

When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay."

 

"When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh may I then in Him be found;

Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne."

 

I love you, Daddy and Momma, and pray that you will continually find encouragement, courage and joy in Christ, your hope of glory! (Col. 1:27)

 

Carey

Grateful for God's Grace to Me in Rynette

On Thursday, June 7, Rynette and I will celebrate 37 years of marriage and once again I rise together with our children to call her blessed!  Happy Anniversary, Babe!  I love you so much!  Thank you for being my beautiful, kind, sweet, generous, sacrificial, gentle, loving, understanding, godly, helpful, faithful wife!  You bless me.

Today I am contemplating two things about our marriage: First, the Lord continues to take us more and more into the depths of understanding God's grace and the love of Christ for His church and the gospel and the mystery of oneness (Ephesians 5:22-33) in marriage.  Often I find myself thinking or saying, "I don't have the words it takes to describe the beauty of the mystery of our marriage and what God shows us about Christ and the church."  Amazing love!

Second, our marriage gets sweeter and more profoundly precious (as do Christ and His gospel) as we contemplate mortality-- yes, because we are approaching 60 years of age, but also because people who are dear to us are growing frail as death nears.  I couldn't help but be reminded of this when I read a poem recently, written and recited in his sermon on marriage by Denny Burke.  I quote from his sermon, given last Sunday in Kentucky:

"I wrote a poem for Susan on our third anniversary that was a bit of a vision of how I was hoping and praying we might end up.  It's a story that ends with a short prayer."

"The old man took her tired hand

to hold for one last time.

The years had finally pressed her to

her final breath of life.

Their wrinkled hands in warm embrace

brought back the long-gone years.

The memories of their happy times,

and those dissolved in tears.

The old man saw in her ill frame

the girl that stole his heart.

He saw in her that gracious gaze

that filled their home with warmth.

His mind turned back to lighter days

when she did make her mark,

The children her love reared for them, 

her single heart for God.

He also felt the weight of grace

that marked her many years, 

How she had borne him patiently 

when he did cause the tears.

The old man said, 'My love, the time

was cruelly short to me.

I cannot say goodbye to you

and let your passing be.'

'How can I ever say farewell

or even let you part?

You are my only precious thing, 

the joy of my old heart.'  

And as his eyes began to well,

she reached to touch his face,

And then her quivering voice began

to give one final grace.

'This is the day the Lord has made,

the one He's brought to pass.

This day was written in His book

before my first was past.'

'The Lord has granted us to spend

together all these years.

He's also granted all the joy

and even all our tears.'

'And though this is a bitter day, 

we owe him so much thanks.

Dear, we made it!  By Him we did!

Yes, we made it!  By His grace!'"

********************************************

"Oh Father, grant that we may see

our days as at their end.

Oh let us know the weight of grace 

in every year we spend.

We make this prayer unto You,

for there is no one higher.

The testimony of your grace

we desperately desire!"  

Rynette, I look forward to knowing more of the weight of God's great grace in every year He grants us.  I love you and thank God for giving us one another.