I request the reader's patience as I
diverge from the topic of GMOs that I began yesterday. Look for a
return to that topic soon.
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In 1996 I was a young graduate student
nearing completion of his degree. My beautiful wife and I were
expecting our first child. Our limited budget had us living in a
roach-infested apartment (you know it's bad when a roach drops off
the light over your dining table onto your plate) and my wife and I
were not eager to bring our new child home to such an environment.
But what to do with such limited resources and a plan to move to
another city soon after the birth?
Enter John and Betsy Moll. We had
become friends with John and Betsy through a homegroup at the church
we attended. Although we had known them less than two years, we had
grown close to them and appreciated the warm, generous, serious and
yet light-hearted spirits. They graciously opened their home and
offered us a room of our own and full use of their house rent-free
until we were ready to move on after our child's birth. We stayed
with them several months, including the first month of our daughter's
life. Their generosity blessed us immensely. Although in the nearly
16 years since we have had only infrequent personal visits, we have
kept in touch and maintained a warm bond of friendship with this dear
couple.
Last Saturday Betsy Moll ended her
journey in this life after a four-year battle with cancer. She had
not quite reached her 46th birthday. Today we had the
bittersweet joy of attending her memorial service. At the end of last
year as her health deteriorated we took the opportunity to drive the
two hours to visit with John and Betsy. At the time she was quite
weak but still able to sit and converse with us for a short time.
We're so glad we had that time to visit and share that time with
them. Listening today to the various testimonies of how she affected
the lives of so many people, we were reminded of the amazing woman
she was, a woman who loved deeply, prayed intensely and worked
persistently to achieve the things she believed in. I won't try to
capture all that Betsy was in this life. Suffice it to say that the
world is a poorer place without her in it.
Betsy's death makes me angry. People
shouldn't die when they are only 46. Death at any age is a sad event,
but death in mid-life or younger seems particularly tragic. I want to
ask God how it is he allows such a death. I don't understand his
ways. And don't tell me that he loved her so much that he wanted her
home with himself. That makes God out to be extremely selfish rather
than loving. Death is a blight on our world, not the act of a loving
God. Death reminds us that this world has fallen from what God
created it to be, that the Kingdom has not yet been fully realized.
Listening to the testimonies and the
message from the pastor today, I heard frequent reference to Betsy
being home with God now. I used to think that as well. Now I am more
inclined to believe that she is in a waiting place, an in-between
state until the time when Jesus returns and heaven and earth become
one. I believe with all my heart and all my hope that the day will
come when Betsy will be reunited with John and all of us in a
glorious, redeemed, recreated world. I don't know when that day will
come. But come it will.
So while I grieve Betsy's passing and
while I wrestle with questions about why God allows a person such as
Betsy to die in the middle of life, I hold on to hope. I understood
again today that hope is a core element of the Gospel message. We do
not mourn as those without hope (1 Thes 4:13), because we know that
the day is coming when death will finally be undone and all who have
died will be restored to a new, resurrected, bodily life. How we
understand that to happen and what exactly heaven will be like are
secondary issues compared to the fundamental fact that God will bring
life out of death. Although death still carries us from this life, it
has been transformed into the gateway into real life. The pain and
sorrow of Betsy's passing is not reduced, but even as we grieve we
cling to this sure hope. This is not the end. It is the beginning. We
shall see Betsy again and know her as a she fully is.
“Blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest
from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
In memory of Elizabeth Moll, 1966-2012
Beautiful.
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