We often talk about serving the Lord with our lives; our time, our money, our values, our affections. But lately I have come to realize the importance of serving our Lord with our mortality.
So many of us prayed for Harry over the past month, and prayed for Doreen as she walked with her husband through his surgeries and long hospital stay. I will always remember the time I spent with them in the Milton hospital. I remember these times because of their humanity. It is an honour to visit sick people in hospital. But I will keenly remember visiting Harry and Doreen because of the glimpses I caught of of God’s grace.
From the time of his diagnosis unto the time of his death, Harry pointed his family and his friends to his faithful Saviour. He used his suffering and mortality to remind us all of Jesus’ promises and our great hope.
On the morning of Harry’s passing I called their home. I was greeted with Harry’s voice on their answering machine. It touched my heart to hear the voice of this saint only moments after he met his Lord face-to-face. After the obligatory salutations Harry closed off his greeting by wishing me (and anyone else who happened to call his home) a day filled with God’s peace.
Harry’s served his Lord with his life. Harry served his Lord with his death.
Thank you, Lord, for men like Harry who’s faithfulness and hope in you challenges and inspires us to long for our great hope; the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus said in John 6, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
