Death is so abrupt. Even in situations where you might expect it, it is still a shock when it occurs. I lost a dear friend this week. I say dear because although we (mainly I) didn't keep in touch as much as I would have liked and maybe were not as close as we could have been, she was still someone I loved. I met my friend Allyson Teter at ORU. I was a freshman and she was a senior. I have no other memories of her but as a bright (both mentally and emotionally), giving, loving and considerate person. She didn't have to make friends with the only freshman on her dorm floor that year, but she did. Allyson was a petite bundle of energy and smiles and never failed to offer encouragement in her own sunshiny way.
I'm not really sure how our relationship developed into a friendship, but I suspect it was mostly due to her effort. Although I am a friendly person I am not always the best at keeping in touch. But even after she had graduated and moved on she kept in touch with me. Her phone calls were always a reason for smiles. She is one of the few people I know who would want to talk not about herself but about you. Every conversation I had with her was full of questions about me, encouragement for whatever I needed and always ending with prayer. Even when and after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis she remained positive and joyful and focused on others. I honestly cannot remember her once talking in a way that left any doubt that she believed that she would be healed. Over the years we would talk and she would encourage not only me but also herself, remaining positive in the face of any circumstance we discussed. And always before we finished any conversation she would pray for me, for me! and my little daily challenges undisturbed by her own personal fight against MS. The last time I spoke to her was on her birthday not too many months ago. She was in such a physical state that she couldn't speak clearly and had a friend on her end of the phone trying to commnicate for her to me. Again, she asked about me, she asked about my sister (who she chaperoned during an extended stay in NYC) and was interested in my life. When the call ended I set my phone down and bawled. Not only was it distressing to know that my friend, who was so full of life and the love of life, had become so confined, but also that she was still more interested in my life than in herself was humbling. I renewed my prayers for her healing. I really believed that she would be healed and I know Allyson didn't doubt that God would heal her. And in His own way He did.
That's the thing with God. Our minds are limited to the options that we can conceive and understand, but God's ways are not our own, his plans for us are bigger than we can ask or think of. So to pray for healing and expect a specific result is somewhat small-minded. I know that some people wouldn't consider Allyson stepping through the door to Heaven as a "legitimate" healing, but I bet from the other side of that door she would beg to differ. We all die. Our time on earth is so finite. To us, 80 years on earth might seem long in comparison to 30 years, but compared to eternity 30 years or 80 years isn't that much of a difference. I like to think that dying is like being born. A baby in the womb may think that the womb is the whole world, because it is the only world he knows. He knows nothing of the world outside the womb. He does not know that the womb is an incubating place a place for him to grow and develop so that he can function in the world outside. And then the birth comes and in a way it is abrupt and somewhat violent like death seems to be. But just like birth, death propels us into our home. The place we were created for. Earth is just our incubating place. A place for us to grow and develop and a place where God molds us into what we will become in eternity. Allyson's life on earth may seem short from our perspective, but the impact of that life was significant, at least for me. I can only speak for myself, but Ally made a difference in my life just by being herself. She made a difference by being my friend, by her prayers and by her attitude. And I am very sad to lose her to this life. But I am so happy to know that she is now home and fully and completely healed. I can't wait for the time when I see her again. Knowing Allyson she will be the first one on the other side of the door to Heaven waiting to say hello.
No comments:
Post a Comment