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