My Friend Is Gone

Sarah was my friend. Although I'd known who she was for several years from times spent at First Baptist of Pasadena, it wasn't until just before Christmas 2008 that I went with a mutual friend to visit Sarah, and our friendship was born.

At that point in her life, Sarah had been living for many months in a "convalescent care" facility. Because she was born with spinabifida, Sarah had never been able to walk and had a variety of challenges with which to deal. Those challenges, which included frequent and hard-to-heal infections, led to a long stay in a facility that in reality caters to people with emotional and mental disabilities--not an easy, peaceful place to live!

Visiting Sarah frequently, we'd become good friends. We had many friends in common, most of them part of the group of people that I affectionately think of as "our kids"--students who were at Fuller when we were there mentoring & encouraging seminarians, many of whom were or are still active at FBC Pasadena.

That group has been Sarah's core support group over the past several years. What she would have done without the love, friendship, and concern of these and other members of FBCP, I do not know. They were Sarah's life-line, she who had no immediate family in the greater Los Angeles area.

From our perspective, Sarah led a very limited life, but she was incredibly intelligent, a grad of UCLA, and fiercely independent to the greatest extent she could be. Life, because of her physical limitations, provided great challenges for her, but Sarah persevered.

Sarah, who had a deep love for God and a passion for missions, spent hours on her computer while she was sitting in bed day after day, month after month when available activities were almost non-existent.

I learned a lot from Sarah -- about patience, perseverance, loving God, and coping in the midst of great difficulties. Did she get impatient, angry, and frustrated at times? Of course! But she was a rock, a vibrant, independent woman of God who told many caregivers, many medical care transport drivers, many friends and family members about Jesus.

Sarah also had cancer, and these last few months had been spent mostly in the hospital trying to deal with that . . . and infections.

In the early hours of a recent Saturday morning, God reached down and released Sarah from her earthly body, took her in His arms, and welcomed her Home, where for the first time ever, Sarah was able to walk.

My friend is gone . . . my heart hurts . . . I miss her!! And yet none of us would wish Sarah back in a body so beset with challenges, so easily overcome by infection, and recently so riddled with cancer and the pain that brought. We know that she is healthy and whole, dancing on the streets of heaven with a freedom she's never experienced before.

Thank you, Sarah, for all you taught me, for your friendship, for your strength in the midst of difficulty, for your love of God and for your passion in sharing Him with others!