Many of you who have been along for Asa’s big, long journey,
know that there are a lot of sweet people, docs, nurses, volunteers, patients,
and families that we have gotten to know along the way. You just can’t help it. We are very sad to report that our precious friend,
sweet saint, Caroline, the one that we probably reported on most, requested
prayer for most, lost her battle with leukemia yesterday. We celebrate in ways as she is free, free
from the pain and torturous treatments, the ups and downs of chemo and pits of
side-effects, finished forever with the days of trying to survive being a teen
and living like a bubble kid, day after day of needing transfusions. We celebrate that she was born again and is
with her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoying every minute of a new and
perfect body and all the freedom and joy in His presence. How exciting!
We sorrow with her family who loved and encouraged her (and us!) so and
fought so hard. Caroline’s presence
influenced so deeply all of those who met her.
She was a funny and delightful kid who just gleamed a holy content
whenever you saw her, pain or not.
Clearly, we ask for prayer for Caroline’s family. I know families with cancer grieve as they
go, but when cancer has been your life, when all is said and done, no matter
the outcome, you are sort of left not knowing what to do. Please pray for Caroline’s family. I know they want her memorials to reflect
Jesus. Pray for her siblings as they are
released to the next thing in their lives.
Pray for her parents, that they adjust back to civilian life well now
that the battle is done. It’s hard, so
hard. Pray long term. It’s a rest of the life, until eternity adjustment.
This past weekend I went to my son’s college choir
concert. It was a hymn concert in
4-part+ harmony, featuring many old classics and their histories, standing room
only with overflow out of the concert hall.
I was struck by the truth of it all.
I have a partiality to old doctrinal hymns, even though I learned that
some in particular were scandalously modern when they were written. I think they bleed timeless into history
though, even the boat-rocking ones, because they are just so chuck full of
restated Scripture. Mid-concert, the
choir sang Spafford’s “It Is Well with my Soul.” As I stood in the back, just outside the door
of the hall, I thought of Caroline.
Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my
soul.
I knew it was close.
The end. The new beginning. Even with good reports, we all knew. You are weighing in one hand the need for the
unheard of miracle, the Master’s touch and in the other, the truth of Psalm
116:15, “Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints.” You don’t really know how the scales will
weigh. You are not out of time, but
stuck in the dead present, thinking you know the best solution, and, quite
simply, we don’t.
We only get the last two lines. We have been regarded by the Maker of heaven
and earth, the Savior of the world. That’s
all we’ve got. All anybody has. All anyone can rejoice in, that we have been
regarded and bought with His precious blood.
So, for today, we sorrow, but we can also easily and
joyfully state that it is well with Caroline and for that, we are truly
grateful and even excited. Praise the
Lord, Oh my soul!
If you are not
familiar with “It is Well with my Soul,” the full lyrics are here:
And better yet, if you
don’t know they history behind this hymn, check it out here. What a story!:
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