I cried today...

There is a picture of Daddy and Pawpaw Cole on my desk at work. Sometimes people who come in ask who they are, and most times it's a conversation which occurs without tears. But today... Today was different. Not because of who asked or because today is some significant day, but because the person who asked is in a sad situation. His wife is sick with pancreatic cancer among other things. 

Ultimately that picture opened the door for me to talk to Mr. Irving about God, about sorrow and dealing with death (the good, bad, and ugly of it)... I told him about how swiftly the leukemia and pneumonia changed our lives ... How I didn't go to church for months because I was mad at God. But the part that made me cry were daddy's own words. It's a story I've told a hundred times, but today, knowing that Mr. Irving a walking through this Valley with his wife and family, it brought me to tears. 

After my friend Rose died in June of 2005, daddy told me that "God is a jealous God, and when He is done with you on earth and wants you back, He's going to take you." That one statement, which was annoying to me at the time because I was sad and upset, came back to me tenfold after he died. The realization that we don't belong to each other, our parents/ kids/ spouse/ family or friends... That we belong to God... Therefore He is just collecting his own. 

Sorrow is such and individual thing... And we all deal differently, but some times, God allows those shared conversations to happen so understandings can be found amongst people.

Tonight at Blast we began the story of Jonah. And our memory verse is quite appropriate to my interaction with Mr. Irving. The lesson was about Refuge...

Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good,a stronghold in a day of distress;He cares for those who take refuge in Him. 

So please friends pray for sweet Mr. Irving's wife... For him... For their family and the doctors that treat her. Pray that they continue to take Refuge in The Lord. 

Love y'all, 

Kacey