Good morning…
At a high school graduation party last night, I met for the first time the husband of a Bible study friend. He was fascinating to talk with, authentic and faith filled.
He shared with me how his first wife had died of breast cancer in her early thirties, a few years younger than he was at the time. Living graciously with her illness, she always tried to keep things upbeat and positive. They did not want to give cancer power over the life of their family, so they focused their attention on living fully, enjoying each day. “There came a time,” he told me last night, “when I sensed in my spirit I needed to have an important talk with my wife a few months before she passed.”
She had a ten year old son at the time who they were raising together. He asked her, “What have you told him about your cancer recently?”
“I’ve told him I am doing just fine, I am managing okay,” she replied.
In his spirit, he felt the LORD encouraging him to say, “All of us have been praying for God to heal you whole for the past two years. We know that the LORD has the power to perform this miracle, but what if God decides to heal you whole by taking you home to heaven? Don’t you think you need to have a talk with your son in a way that prepares him for this possibility?” She received her young husband’s gentle encouragement, and he recalled for me last night her final Christmas Eve when he carried his wife up the stairs to the bed where she shared a special night snuggling with her son. He senses that was the night they had their heart to heart talk, filled with joy and laughter.
The day she slipped from earth to heaven, this soulful man sitting in front of me at the dinner party last night was tasked with telling a ten year old boy that his mother had died. This heartbroken youngster burst into tears, but said immediately with peaceful confidence, “My mom is happy. Really happy. She told me if this happened she would be really, really happy to be healed whole in heaven.”
This brave woman had left her son with a good goodbye, and this wise man, who remarried my friend a few years after his first wife passed, mentioned a title of a song that captured beautifully the gift given by this beloved wife and mom. I came home from the graduation party to find the video online, and now I share the gift with you. Click on this link to feel fully the need for our good goodbye.
Video – Clint Black & Wynonna – A Bad Goodbye.mpg youtube.com
For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity] (Philippians 1:21, AMP).
…Sue…
