A Well Lived Life, A Little Kitten, and Thank You God

 In the course of almost 60 years I have known a lot of great people.  I have been privileged to grow and learn under wise and funny mentors.  Through the years we know people who serve with all out love and abandon.  In church life especially we have the chance to witness those who really live out their faith and those who don't when life is harder than normal because life is hard.  From my years at First Baptist I have observed from a distance and yet have had those 'few moments' to be close enough to see three women really live out their faith in the midst of loss, tragedy, sorrow, sadness and grief.  They are Marge Caldwell, Beth Moore and Carole Lewis.  We watched as Marge and Beth continued to serve and minister; Marge with the death of her daughter and Beth, the loss of caring for a boy who as a family they were committed to loving and raising as their own.  They both were honest in their losses, both retained the hope we are given as believers but I didn't hear them one time in front of a group lapse into self-pity or ask for sympathy.  They spoke of not understanding the circumstances but they always spoke of understanding the One who lovingly cares for us and His strength became their strength when they didn't think they could continue.  

When I first worked at church my desk was in the First Place office and it afforded me the opportunity to visit with Carole from time to time.  Way back in the long, long ago, she and I did not start out well with one another.  We both assumed some things and over time we saw that we were both wrong in our assumptions of each other but we were way past those times by then.  I only write this because God redeems those relationships that we can merely brush away because of our misunderstandings.  Over the years as she has filled in teaching Sunday School and as my First Place Leader she has shared her stories of great happiness, joy and fun; she has also shared her stories of the great loss of a daughter, business and a much loved beach home but as I sat there in her office, as we visited, I was given a glimpse of her heart and how she has been an over comer only by the grace and love of God.  Yesterday, her friends, co-laborers and brothers and sisters in Christ, gathered to celebrate the life of her husband Johnny.  We laughed, we pondered, we cried and we rejoiced.  We admired a kind and gentle man who many of us in that gathering wish we could have known better.  Bill Heston served as our guide to understand these things and put words together that comforted.  He spoke out of a pastor’s heart and as a friend.  He didn’t speak to give leadership or to teach us something as we listened and could Tweet later.  No, he spoke assurance, promise, and declared we would see Johnny again.  I loved that he and the family shared that Johnny was a man’s man, a coach, a great cook and all these things were encased in a man who was gifted and preferred working behind the scenes. 

I watched Carole enter into the worship center on the arm of Rick Jones.  She smiled as she walked but had a momentary pause, even though she continued in her steps, her expression for that brief second conveyed and registered upon her of the finality of his life on earth.  Well, that is how I saw it.  She gazed downward but when her head came up, there was her smile…not quite as brave as when she entered but I felt I had just been privy to a moment between her and the Lord.   She was trusting in and relying on all of His strength. 

After the service we stood around visiting and catching up with friends.  More than one of us lamented we needed to stop just seeing one another at funerals or memorial services.  That we should make the time to catch up and that is a good thought but doubtful in its happening.  When I got home and looked through Facebook I saw that a kitten that a friend had rescued several days ago from a busy street had died.  She had named her Izzy but in death they found that Izzy had been a He-zzy.  Cats are mysterious like that.  The kitten had died from anemia due to all the flea bites it had encountered with life in the wild.  She died in my friends arms while they were at the vet. 

Two totally separate events in a day with enormous differences but oddly with a similar message. The last days for the kitten had been the best days of its life.  That little kitten had been given a chance to experience love and care.  It died in the arms of one who loved it, not in some field alone or on the street run over by a car.  Johnny had been told when first diagnosed with stage four cancer it would be a matter of months, yet he lived the last sixteen years living each day to the fullest.  He and Carole knew they had been given a gift out of something that we don’t think as a gift.  There again, Carole knowing and trusting God that Romans 8:28 is truth even when it is hard truth.  God caring for this cute, little tiny kitten and God caring for His children.  He is a big God and He is also the God in the little details of a funny little kitten's life. 

I would like to add that I consider it an honor that I can claim to be related to Carole, if only by cat.  Nine years ago we got one of the little kittens from her daughter-in-law that had been born to their mamma cat and a scoundrel of a daddy.  Of course that little kitten is our much beloved Buddy who started life as a boy but is really a girl.  Cats are like that…..