Category Archives: Disease and dying

Character Counts

Posted on by

Last Friday the 91 year old mother of a friend died quietly after living a much-admired life, and her funeral tomorrow is sure to be a long one. That’s how it goes after a life has been well lived.

Elizabeth SchambachElizabeth Schambach worked hard this side of eternity, beginning by growing up amidst 13 siblings. After marrying at 19, she and her husband bought a farm in America’s heartland and raised 6 children of their own. Working for her family and on the farm through her 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s wasn’t easy, but she labored faithfully at the tasks given her, even after losing her husband at 58.

John’s early death hadn’t been part of the plan, and she was a widow  nearly as many years as she’d been a wife (39 married, 33 a widow). But God never stopped blessing this lady and made sure she wasn’t lonely. He enriched her life with 6 children-in-law, 23 grandchildren, 51 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild!

Hands.And that wasn’t all. God had a gentle plan for Elizabeth’s exit from this world last week. She’d eaten dinner at the care facility where she lived and then had attended a festive hymn sing. Being a lover of music, she’d clapped her hands to the beat of the old songs she loved so much, and went off to bed that night with music in her heart.

But 90 minutes after Elizabeth had drifted to sleep, she was woken by the surprise of her life when she arrived into the presence of Jesus Christ himself! My guess is she picked up right where she’d left off at the hymn sing, clapping her hands and singing with joy!

Although Elizabeth Schambach had enough family members to fill a town hall, she’d never been a famous woman. She hadn’t run for political office, had never been on the cover of a magazine, didn’t compete in the Olympics, and wasn’t able to amass a fortune. But she did something far superior to any of that. She won God’s approval.

And she did it by living the life he intended her to live, in the not-so-easy circumstances in which he placed her, a life of impeccable character and satisfied contentment.

Interestingly, that’s what he’s looking for in all of us, because character counts big-time with God.

God's instruction bookLike Elizabeth, a person of honorable character won’t be swayed by popular opinion and won’t put stock in the latest fads. She won’t long for fortune or fame. Instead she’ll base her behavior on God’s instruction manual without trying to edit out the distasteful parts. And when the right decisions always end up being the hardest ones, she’ll make them anyway.

If Elizabeth was here, she could probably attest to all of that. But she might also want to add a line from an old hymn: “It will be worth it all, when I see Jesus.”

And now….  it is.

“A wife of noble character …. is worth far more than rubies. A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:10)

Saved

Posted on by

Car albumThis afternoon Emerald directed my attention to a family scrapbook I hadn’t viewed in a while, a photo album with the title “Memory Lane.” Her baby abilities have been on the increase lately, and her “sticky fingers” are grabbing with greater efficiency. This scrapbook, stored on a bottom shelf, was her newest conquest.

After she’d perused C.S.Lewis and “The Problem of Pain,” she ooched left, swiveled, and grabbed “Memory Lane,” ripping out the inscription page and the first page of photos before anyone noticed. Normally this wouldn’t bother me, since many of my possessions have been similarly “loved” by grandchild-hands. But this album was a gift to Nate from me, and I wanted to keep it nice.

The bigger car, 1971Over 30 years of time, I’d collected pictures of all the cars we’d ever owned as a couple, along with a few my parents had owned. There’s Nate’s first car, my first car, and every car after that, including the multiple “low budget” cars of 7 driving children. The album has 71 vehicles pictured…. so far.

As I secretly tucked away photos over the years, I always knew they would one day be a special surprise for Nate. But it was tricky deciding when to give the scrapbook, since additional cars were always being added. Then finally I couldn’t wait any longer to see his reaction and decided to give it on his birthday in August, 2009. It must have been God prompting me, because that was his last birthday.

Last birthdayAlthough he didn’t feel good that evening, he loved his gift and praised me for the effort behind it. The very next week we learned (after a physical exam) that something was “off” in his blood numbers, and further tests were ordered. Within a month of that birthday party, we’d heard the words “terminal pancreatic cancer,” and 2½ months after he turned 64, he was gone.

Today when the album suffered at Emerald’s hands, it went against me. Something about keeping that scrapbook in good shape seemed to help keep my connection with Nate in good shape.

Inscription pageNot that a simple photo album can bridge the massive gap between earth and heaven. But just seeing my written greeting to him on the front page remains a link between the two of us, at least for me (though surely no longer for him).  We are approaching the 4 year mark from his death, and with time I find it more and more difficult to stay connected to him.

I believe God gently supplies potent reminders of our relationships with loved ones who’ve passed away (like the car album’s appearance today) as instruments of healing. People who’ve experienced loss want to reaffirm (again and again) that their bond with that person is still strong. Gifts from the past, both given and received, help do that.

And so, when Louisa saw the damage to Nate’s scrapbook, she quickly devised a solution, removing some of the photos, gluing them elsewhere, trimming the inscription page, pasting it over something else, and voila! The revised scrapbook is almost as good as new.

And as of today, it’s found a new home on a very high shelf.

“The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

Healing Powers

Posted on by

When I was growing up in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, my friends occasionally disappeared from school for 2 weeks at a time, and sometimes I did, too. That’s because we all had to suffer through the debilitating diseases of mumps, measles (several kinds), chicken pox, flu, and several others.

These days children are blessed with vaccines. They can breeze through childhood skipping almost everything except the common cold. Well, that and a few other things.

Fever...

Today Birgitta and Louisa brought home two amoxicillin prescriptions after slogging through 3 days of 102 fevers, razor-sharp sore throats, and nausea. I was certain they had strep throat, but with today’s lab reports, we learned they have a strep-lookalike called pharyngitis, an inflammation of the tube that connects the nasal passages, throat, and esophagus.

Sometimes, the doctor said, pharyngitis is a precursor to strep, and so she wrote the prescriptions. It’s my opinion these meds will perk them both up, and I hope they’ll feel better soon.

Scripture has a number of things to say about healing. In the Gospels we watch Jesus speak words of wellness over people that bring instant good health. How thrilling it would have been to be part of the crowd that witnessed this phenomenon first hand! If we’d have been there, we’d also have noticed Jesus connecting his healings with belief in God. He forgave their sin. Or taught of God’s character. Sometimes he challenged people to live righteously from then on. And he often made mention of their personal faith in him.

Broken heart

Jesus also talked of healing of another kind, the healing of broken hearts. As we move  close to him during times of sadness, he promises to mend us. And compared to physical healing, heart-healing is probably the more important one.

The Bible also says something else about healing. The wounds Christ suffered when he was tortured and put to death are somehow the cause of healing within us, healing from sin. Isaiah 53 says, “With his stripes we are healed.” Although we can’t fully comprehend  how this works, we take him at his word and accept that his crucifixion wounds are what will allow us to be healed (and sinless) throughout eternity.

Although Jesus can certainly affect physical healing in people today, we don’t see much of it in our country. Maybe that’s because the more important bottom line is not how vigorous we feel in the here and now but how healthy our life after death is going to be. And whether we’re hale and hearty in this life or find ourselves battling illness, it’s eternal health that God wants us to focus on most.

Amoxicillin

Meanwhile, Louisa and Birgitta continue to swallow with difficulty and hope their antibiotics kick in soon. Though each had to pay a doctor’s bill today, their expenditures were miniscule compared to what Jesus paid to make sure they can have good health everlastingly.

“O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved.” (Jeremiah 17:14)