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A Moment of Remembrance
Rev. Edward Hartman
Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, Amy and I found ourselves in a physician's office, trying to determine why she was experiencing such awful headaches. Her greatest anxiety that day was the fear of the needle when she got the spinal tap, which she ended up not needing, because before we got to that point we were faced with scans that revealed a very large tumor in her head which later turned out to be a very serious malignancy.
What an incredible year it has been. It's been a year of incredible terror, fear and anxiety. But it has also been a year of unbelievable richness and absolute delight. It's been the very finest year of our marriage. There has been a lens through which we have viewed every part of our experience through this past year. It is a lens that is best described by the Psalmist's words in Psalm 119, verse 68, where he writes, "God you are good, and what you do is good."
It has been the unbelievable and overwhelming goodness of God which has framed every part of our experience over the course of this past year.
He began by surrounding us with the very finest doctors and medical professionals that we could have ever hoped to care for Amy. [Aside to the doctors who were present at the service: "And Ruth and James and Gary, I shall always be grateful. Always."]
The Lord followed by surrounding us with His people as a further expression of His absolute goodness. God's people have loved us, they have prayed for us, they have wept with us, they have carried us. I could spend the rest of the evening describing to you the incredible goodness of God displayed by His people.
But I suspect the very finest expression of God's goodness to us would be viewed by Amy's own perspective. you see, a number of months ago Amy went into the florist's shop and was watching the ladies preparing some flowers for a funeral that was taking place later that day, and she read the cards that were attached to those flowers. They read, "With deep sympathy," or "with our condolences." Amy shook her head and said, "That's far too sad." She looked Dean Fenwick, the florist, in the face and said, "I don't want any cards like that on my flowers at my funeral." She began thumbing through the cards that were there that are often sent with flowers, and she picked one out--and I've carried this card with me ever since that day--and said, "I want this card on my flowers." It's a card that reads, "Welcome to your new home."
You see, that's God's greatest expression of goodness to Amy, and to our family, because she is home, and I suspect it's the first home at which she has ever arrived where she did not immediately begin thinking about redecorating. Amy is home,and Amy is absolutely delighted to be there. So I want to call you to rejoice with me on her behalf.
God is good, and He has done good.
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