Karen, my first high school classmate in Toronto, passed away on Saturday April 15, 2017. It is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday of this year. The choices Karen made in her last month of living speak to me of what matters the most in life.
Karen was diagnosed with lung cancer in late February. After the medical team gave her an emergency operation, she, unconscious, was placed in an isolated room inside the Intensive Care Unit. A few days later, she was transferred to the general ward of the Intensive Care Unit, then the palliative ward. Miracle of healing happened to Karen one after another. She came out of her coma. The life supporting tubes connected to her mouth and nose were taken away. She was able to eat on her own and moved around with a cane. Later on, she was transferred to another hospital. Her health condition improved steadily and finally, she was able to spend one and a half weeks at home before readmitted back to the hospital.
Through hospital visits and What’sApp chats, Karen shared her life with others. She planned for her funeral service and made the arrangement for her burial. During her homestay, she chose to visit a bookstore in her neighborhood, ate out with her family, attended the fellowship for Christian musicians, and played piano at her church on Sunday. Despite the excruciating pain from the cancer invasion to her bones, she chose to focus her energy and attention on what were important to her: her beloved parents, siblings and their spouses, nephew, niece, other extended family members, friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. She used her musical talents to bless others and worship the Lord. That is what really matters in each blessed day: the people we treasure in our life and the ways we use our talents.
Another surprise came on Easter Monday. One of my other friends, Cat, posted on What’sApp chat group that she has, once again, found peace and joy in the Lord after ten years of depression. I would say that her depression was triggered by the illness and passing of her beloved one. Many of us in this group chat were so happy for Cat. We praised and thanked God for His timing and His work. Another friend summed with the lyric of the song, In His Time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo-rGzx2OZk). It goes:
In his time, In his time
He makes all things beautiful in his time
Lord, please show me everyday
As you’re teaching me your way
And I’ll do just what you say
In your time.
In your time, in your time
You make all things beautiful in your time
Lord, my life to you I bring
May each song I have to sing
Be to you a lovely thing
In your time.
Be to you a lovely thing
In your time.
This Easter reminds me of the hope Christians have in Christ. Our Almighty God has great plan for us. His way is higher than our way and His thought is not our thought. He extends his invitation to those who thirst and seek for Him (Isaiah 55: 1-9). He brings comfort for His people and strength to the weary (Isaiah 40). “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53: 6). It states,
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged till he established justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope.
(Isaiah 42: 3-4)
Our God is a giver of life and he makes all things beautiful in His time.
What are my choices before an empty tomb? Peter and John, Jesus’ disciples, came to the empty tomb and went back to their homes, whereas Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb crying (John 20:10). She talked to Jesus and told the other disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” (20:18). Let’s choose what is prudent and worthwhile. He is risen and our hope is in Him. Hallelujah! “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord” (Psalms 150:6).
Grow In God's Grace 