One month ago

One month ago today at 11:38 pm, standing around Carol’s bed, we witnessed her spirit depart in a nanosecond, as she took her last breath on this earth; a time of both joy and sadness for us. Joyfully we thought about her passing through that curtain to meet her Lord and Savior, and being reunited with friends and family members that preceded her. Sadly we continue to deal with the tremendous hole that she leaves in each of our lives.

The Daily Message has been precious to me. 1 Corinthians 12-14, reminds me of Carol and the Lord working through her life as she faithfully studied His word each day. The following are a few quotes from those chapters that spoke to me:

“What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood...God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can...God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit...Each person is given something to do that shows who God is; everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.”

“I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together...But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of.”

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together...every part dependent on every other part...If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.”

We have been blessed by the body, especially during the last 2 ½ years fighting Carol’s cancer and now being without her. It is a difficult time, but I am continually blessed by you! In chapter 13 we read; “Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying...will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.”

Life's opportunities here are now over for Carol, but like Carol, I continue to prepare and look forward to that day when we are together again on the other side of that curtain of death. No more sickness, no more separation...Plenty of good thoughts for me to fill those spare moments during this new day.

Enjoy the opportunities of this new day, being a vital part of His body.

Love to you all,

Chuck