legacies

Our dear Uncle Harold, Aunt Sharon's Daddy, has been so many places--shared our Haiti roots, took Matt to Russia, worked for the unreached all over Africa--and has finally gone Home. 

No more suffering, no more missing his Mary, no more struggles, no more pain...and also no more precious adventures and conversations and prayers with Harold. The last time I heard Uncle Harold's voice, through the phone when I was talking to Aunt Sharon, she said: "I'm talking to Stacey, Daddy," and I heard him say, "Stacey? She's one of my very favorite writers."  THAT is ridiculous, and yet so pricelessly Harold Brown that I will cherish it forever. Aunt Sharon and Angie had such an incredibly special relationship with their godly father...I feel the ACHE just with them, in my bones. 

Two days before he passed, another dear friend and fellow board member at OMS had a major health setback and died just hours later, and while it is not hard for me to picture energetic and compassionate Rudy at His throne--SO quick to jump in, SO quick to tear up, SO quick to testify His faithfullness--it IS hard to picture him g o n e .

How have I been SO RICH as to touch lives with SO MANY faithful people??

So what we have is Jesus. 

What we have, it Never fails, and He is enough.

What we have is the knowledge of Revelation 22 for our dear ones, reigning forever and ever and ever and just waiting a moment for us. No longer anything accursed (sadness, loneliness, pain, sickness, heartbreak, missing, anxiety), the throne of God flowing the river of the water of life, His servants worshipping Him, seeing His face, His name on their foreheads, no more night, no more darkness. The Lord their light, reigning forever and ever, these words are trustworthy and true.

It doesn't just comfort me. It transforms me. It transforms death. It redeems it. It somehow means that while everything feels SO heavily t.h.e.  e.n.d. with these precious fathers, it is not the end. Not even close. Just the beginning, the beginning of ALWAYS.

And I am SO THANKFUL I have Rudy imprinted forever in my life. I am SO thankful that Uncle Harold's powerful, gentle, abandoned and passionate legacy has been being poured and poured into me for 17 years now. Uncle Martin and Aunt Sharon hemmed our family in because Uncle Harold and Aunt Mary were their parents and that was how they did things, their BIG love and faithful witness passed down. And still does. And always will. Reigning forever and ever.

The broken parts, for Harold and Rudy, are NO more, not even a wince, not even a shadow, not even a painful memory, not even a sigh (Isaiah 35). 

I am SO weary of sickness, brokenness, suffering, sadness and death, and believing SO FULLY that it will be redeemed as if it NEVER was that I cling to Rudy's Hope, Harold's Hope, Mom and Dad's Hope, Granny's Hope, the Hope. 

Eyes on Jesus, Stacey. 

Like Harold's.