Faith and Love for God and Karen Won the Day!

It is 3:40am on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012.  I am tired but I don't think sleep will come easily for "Karen's Cancer Crusade" has come to an end.

I wish I could give each one of you a hug and thank you personally for the many expressions of love for Karen and our family in these final weeks of her life on earth.  We have three separate boxes of cards....the "Thinking of You" cards, cards that came from my "Special Request" to all of you blog readers, and "Happy Birthday" cards delivered last week. Then there were the flower arrangements, brought to our door so often that when you gave the florist Karen's name, she already knew our address!  The visits, phone calls, texts, facebook and blog comments were a continual reminder to us that we were in your thoughts.  We were blessed by the food you brought and monetary gifts you shared with us.  Though I may have forgotten something, there is one important thing we won't forget.  The greatest gift you gave us was the time you spent in prayer for Karen.

As I sit here in this early morning hour, I can't help but think about the part that love and faith played in our "life and death" experience.  This is where I could quote Scripture verses to you "right and left", but in this posting, as appropriate as it would be, I'm not going to do that.  Instead, I'm going to tell you about a young married couple who on August 12th, 1978, determined to love God and each other the best they knew how and with all the faith they could muster.  "For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part according to God's Holy Ordinance."  Sound familiar?  It did to us.  Our love and faith in God and for each other was tested numerous times in those 33 years and if death had not separated us, we would still be seeking to perfect them each and every day. 

January 2012, found us now both weakened by age, and in addition, for Karen, having that dreaded disease we call cancer   Again, as in the past, our faith and love for God and each other was put to the test. There was one small request, not by the one who lay dying, her faith in God now almost complete, but by the one who would follow some time after.  This was my prayer, "If it is your will, God, please let me be by Karen's side when death comes."  With the advent of her comatose state on Monday, an additional request was made, this time to Karen, "Please, Karen, open your eyes one more time before you die."  Then came the watching and waiting to see what kind of answer my faith would produce.  Not knowing when Karen would die, I tried to stay close by her bedside. Yesterday afternoon, as I stood watching, she struggled briefly to open just one eye and with success, she looked right straight at me! She tried to speak, three times,  "I"..., "I"..., "I"..., and then she was gone.  Some think Karen was trying to say "I love you!"  But, regardless of her words or lack of them, faith and love for God and Karen had won the day!

"Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."  II Corinthians 5:6-8

We have a meeting at Summers Funeral Home today at 10:00am. Tentative plans are for visitation on Friday and funeral on Saturday, both at Fayette Bible Church, in Washington Court House.  There will also be a memorial service the following week at the United Methodist Church in Rockwell, Iowa.  When we have more specific information I will post it for all you faithful bloggers!

Thank you!
   Jack, for the Harris family