Changes You Don't Want

This morning I will be going to Richland to teach my ESOL Reading class. Denise will be going to work, then to the funeral of our dear friend, Lyndle "Rich" Wilcox.

There are some changes you embrace. Teaching international students at Richland is part of a change that allows me to be God's servant to those who don't know Christ. I am so happy and so blessed to have this new ministry.

But there are some changes that you hate, that you never want to see, even if you believe, like I do, that God works for the good for all those who love Him.

And did Lyndle ever love Him! And she loved me, and she loved Denise, and she loved her family, and if she knew you, she loved you. She was a force of nature. Or better, she was a force of God who had learned early on to take everything she was and everything that she was given and turn it to love.

We met Lyndle in the early-mid70s. We were all apart of a circle of friends, most of whom were part of the Hawn Freeway church of Christ,  centered around a love of God and love for each other. My first and lasting impression of Lyndle was that here was a humble yet vibrant witness to Christ's love.

Denise and I were beneficiaries of that love. Lyndle shared her life and her biscuits with us, babysat our children, prayed and praised with us in tiny apartments and big church buildings. As time passed and Denise and I moved around the country, then around the world, Lyndle kept in touch with us. The last we communicated was on June 30 - July 1 when we exchanged facebook messages, saying that we needed to get together. We will.

Lyndle loved her brother Dale and her niece, Jamie, and her nephew, Daniel. She was the kind of sister and aunt that everyone wants to have - loving, forgiving, playful and wise. She would have made a fantastic grandmother. But most of all, she loved Rick, the husband that God sent her. How much I know that it grieved her that she and Rick, at first, could not share that love with children, but, then, God blessed them with Angel and Zera.

God will bless Rick, Angel and Zera. I know that He will. From the foundations of eternity, he gave them Christ. A few years ago, he gave them Lyndle. He will not leave them without blessing now.

I know that this change is a good thing for Lyndle, and I am truly happy for her.  But I really don't want to live in a world without her. So, I keep telling myself, it will not always be this way. 

Maranatha. Lord come quickly!