Thinking back to the excruciating days of Nate’s cancer diagnosis and our first realization things might end up badly, I wasn’t sure what direction our conversations should take. Although the words “terminal” and “fatal” had been directly spoken to us by knowing doctors, it took a while for Nate and I to talk along those lines.

One of the first things he said that let me know he was beginning to absorb the brevity of his life was, “Could you find some verses you think would be good for me right now? Write them down so I can keep them with me.”

Happy to comply, I prayed and pleaded with God to give me exactly the Scriptures Nate needed. Then I typed up eight passages and printed them out, and Nate gratefully accepted the two pages. The next day I noticed he’d looked them all up and written down who the speaker was in each group of verses.

True to his word, he kept the Scriptures with him, reading and re-reading the supernaturally powerful words of God. Although I couldn’t imagine how dispiriting it would be to be told you were going to die soon, fear must have continually hovered at the edges of his mind. No human being could have delivered what he needed, but God knew precisely what to tell him.

(Excerpts from the pages):

“The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do what is right.”

“I prayed to the Lord and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.”

“God said, my grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

“Be strong… The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

“Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things.”

“The Lord is your keeper… He will keep your soul.

Pastor Colin Smith had counseled Nate that in the beginning he’d be surrounded by a large circle of co-workers, friends, relatives, doctors. Then the circle would narrow to just our family members, and finally it would be only him, alone with God.

And that’s exactly how it went.

In his final hours, Nate was unconscious. Hospice nurses couldn’t understand how he hung onto life 48 hours after they were sure he would have succumbed, given the condition of his body. But I believe God’s Spirit kept him alive during those unexplainable hours in order to conduct important business with Nate’s soul. Nate was being freed from fear, being given grace and strength, being told the answers to his questions and being kept safe from soul-harm, exactly as the verses had assured him God would do.

When Nate was ready and the time came to slip out of his emaciated body and into a glorified one, God carefully watched over the process of his “going out” of this world and his “coming into” the next, just as he said he would.

A few days after he died, I was cleaning off the small table by his lazy-boy where he’d kept his Post-it notes, his pens, his newspapers and other important things. There I found the two well-worn pages of verses.

“He will guard your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forever.” (Psalm 121:8)

People who love the beach fall into two camps: ocean-lovers and lake-lovers. The choice seems to be rooted in childhood, as most things are, whether we end up loving one or the other. I’m a lake person, but that’s because I grew up on Lake Michigan’s shores.

{Before continuing, know that this blog might make you ocean-lovers angry. Please put your sandals on, set your pre-conceived ideas aside and let’s practice being open-minded. At least you should be.}

Ocean people can’t believe anyone would prefer a small lake over a mighty ocean, but they haven’t seen the size of a giant like Lake Michigan. For all practical purposes, it looks exactly like an ocean. Its horizon stretches indefinitely, and no one can see across to the other side.

Oceans have a great deal more wildlife living in them than lakes do, but that’s not necessarily an advantage. Who needs sting rays with their fatal barbs feeding in the shallow water when you’re trying to wade? And who wants crabs and crawfish snapping at your toes? Here on Sanibel Island today, a vacationing man fishing in waist-deep water caught a baby shark. It was non-threatening, despite a full set of double-teeth, but no one asked my question: “Was its mother nearby?”

Lake Michigan may not readily yield enough big fish for dinner, but there are none that can hurt swimmers, either. Floating out deep with arms and legs dangling over the edge of a blow-up raft is no problem. Although there are some big fish in the lake, they hang in water so deep they can hardly be caught and would never bother a swimmer.

And how about the ocean’s salt-factor? What fun is it to swim in water that hurts your eyes? Last time I swam in an ocean I came out only to find salt crystallizing on my skin, then tightening, then itching. Being in need of a shower immediately after a swim to wash off the experience doesn’t make any sense.

Lake Michigan’s water is so clean a person can drink it, and we have. A swim leaves you refreshed, and if someone got lost 25 miles from shore, dehydration wouldn’t be a problem. In the ocean, a drink would only increase thirst, not to mention make you go crazy. It wouldn’t taste very good, either.

I can think of only one advantage oceans have over lakes: better surfing. Unless body surfing qualifies, Lake Michigan swimmers are at a distinct disadvantage. Ocean-lovers win on that score. Their waves can be massive with the power that surfers crave. (I won’t mention they’re so powerful they might kill you.)

Ocean-lovers point to the beauty of their shells. We lake-lovers see just as much splendor in our stones. Although ocean beaches claim to have the silkiest sand in the world made from ground-down shells, if you walk too close to the water line, you’d better have your sandals on or you might get wounded by stepping on a broken shell. Lake Michigan sand may not be silky, but it squeaks when you walk on it, and its rounded stones would never cut a bare foot. The sand also curves to your body shape when its time for a beach nap, unlike ocean sand that’s hard enough to bear up under the wheels of a car.

So, all you ocean-lovers, don’t get mad; just get even, and make your case! And as you do…..
”Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy.” (Hebrews 12:14)

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when God created the sun, but of course there weren’t any flies then or, for that matter, walls. It must have been spectacular, though, as he brought into being this most important light “to rule the day.”

Here in the Florida tropics the sun rules beautifully from an azure sky. As a widow for five winter months, I’ve had a hard time watching daylight fade each day, knowing darkness would follow. Spring’s longer daylight and sunnier skies seem especially encouraging this year.

But I’ve always loved the sun, not just because it brings warmer weather and prettier sunsets but to sit beneath, as in sun-bathe. Although we need vitamin D, too much sun becomes destructive. It causes skin cancer, age spots and wrinkles, and I’m a walking testimony to all of that.

So I’ve tried to analyze what it is about sitting in the sun that captivates me. It has very little to do with getting a tan, although in my younger years it was all about that. We sat with mirrors or tin foil, doubling the power of our sunning time. And if the sun wasn’t shining, we used an indoor sun lamp, burning ourselves to blisters again and again.

Now that I’m older (and supposedly wiser), a suntan isn’t that important, yet the sun still draws me. Why is that? Part of the attraction is its link with happy family beach trips as a child. Then as a young married couple, Nate and I saved for three years before taking a road trip in our tiny Fiat to Florida… and the beach. After that, when we had children, beach trips were the perfect combination of sunshine, sand and water to guarantee family fun for every age.

So this week, here we are again, enjoying Florida’s sun and beach, although with my open facial wounds, I must stay covered. But reading or writing under a sunny sky still holds more appeal than sitting inside, even though friends have said, “Some day you’ll be sorry, ‘cause you’ll look old before your time.”

They were right about the old-before-your-time part, but not about the being-sorry. Growing up on beaches and outdoors instilled a deep appreciation for the wonders of God’s world. It increased my awe-factor toward the Creator, and in a mysterious way, sunshine figures into it. I can even understand how ancient people took it one step too far and worshipped the sun.

Of course all of us can turn appreciation into obsession, and we often do. God gives us a world full of good gifts, and we take them to extremes, transforming good to bad… as in over-doing our sun-time. There is one thing we can’t spoil by overdoing it, however, and that’s appreciating God. We can’t worship him too much, love him too much, bring him too much or depend on him too much. He willingly receives it all, even if it’s anger, disappointment, failure… or sin. He’s for us, which includes the good, the bad and the ugly.

Scripture tells us in heaven there won’t be any dark nights during which we’re looking out the window, longing for the sun to rise. God’s Son himself will light the new heaven and earth, and the sun as we know it won’t be needed. But the Bible doesn’t say there won’t be one. Since God created the sun for the first earth and called it “good”, my guess is he’ll make a new one to shine on the new earth, too. If so, I plan to sit beneath it, increasing my awe-factor toward God just as I’m doing today. I just hope I won’t have to wear the hat.

We are not to be “high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” (1 Timothy 6:17)