Today I celebrate.
Today I love the life of my friend who battled an ailing liver. Again and again I look at her photo in my kitchen and replay her video on the computer, and I catch myself standing motionless for long moments, relishing all
the memories. I remember days of studying the
Bible in our houses, and I still have handwritten notes from the day we studied
at Chick-fil-A. I remember the time she
read over the mic at the coffeehouse a story she wrote, and I remember she loved the
tortilla soup at the Mexican restaurant down the street. I remember driving her to the infusion clinic
and sitting with her and being so happy that she could enjoy Cracker Barrel on
the way home. When she needed the coziness of her favorite blankets, we prayed at her house. Among her many rooms in the hospital, we prayed too,
though sometimes her medications caused her to fade, but I still held her hand. She traveled the hospital from the regular
rooms to the wound care area, to the telemetry section, and to the many
different floors that I don’t remember exactly.
So outwardly grateful she was for her doctors and nurses, and she
entertained the thought of gathering her hospital friends for a cookout and a
time of music and worship one day, once they would all be home. After enduring a terribly persistent infection one time, she told me
how the Lord gave an amazing peace that led her through, and so I took
some pointy party hats to her room for us to celebrate. More recently, her faint voice could hardly convey over the phone. My last hospital
visit, she was not in her room, so on her bed tray I left a card with a picture
of a cat that looked like her black-and-white Ziggy. Since she passed on Sunday morning, I have
cried in joy for having known such a wonderful witness for the Lord. She had hoped for a liver transplant that never
happened. Yet now she is free from pain. The Lord has wiped all the tears from her eyes, and she dwells with Him now in a new way. Revelation 21 speaks of heaven and the Holy
City of gold, where there will be
no darkness because the Lord’s glory will shine always. All will be new. My sweet friend now experiences eternally the
grandest party of all, and I thank the Lord for sharing His sweet child and
inspiring me through her.
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