Ron and Jan

My friend will be walking into the church by himself this morning.

He will have many people around him, but the love of his life will not be by his side.

I want to be there to cry with him...
I want to hear the fond memories friends and family share of his wife...
I want to sing songs of faith and hope with other believers...

But the funeral service is in Denver.

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The bonds between believers in Jesus Christ are strong and last through the years. Ron and Jan were our dear friends the three years we lived in Denver. You know the kind. You didn't ask "Do you want to go out after church tonight?" You said, "where do you all want to go tonight?" I remember being in their backyard on the Fourth of July wrapped up in blankets watching fireworks. (There's something very wrong with needing a blanket in July, but that's a whole other story.) Ron is the one who taught me how to shift a standard drive jeep without using the clutch. We were young and away from home and family. Ron and Jan were exactly ten years older than us. They took us and our children in as family. They shared the love of Christ with us through great times and very difficult times.

We left Denver in 1989. We only saw them a few times in the twenty plus years since. Last year Jan had finished her chemo treatments and sorta felt like traveling. They headed to Florida and came through Nashville with their best friends Alan and Pat. We spent the day together - the six of us - and had a wonderful time. You would never have known over twenty years had gone by. Those kinds of relationships come from God's Spirit living inside and from shared lives - spending time together.

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This month is colon cancer awareness month. If Jan could offer a word of advice to us she would first want to know for sure that you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. She would probably then insist that if you are over 50 that you have a colonoscopy. Colon cancer, when detected early, is very easy to treat. When you notice symptoms it is too late. Jan had some symptoms. When she went to the doctor to see what was wrong she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. That was about two years ago. I'm sure she would tell you that the uncomfortable feelings you have when you think about that proceedure is nothing compared to what all she went through the last two years to try and treat her cancer.

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13.But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.


14.For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

15.For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16.For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17.Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

18.Therefore comfort one another with these words.