Goodbye, Margene...For Now

I don't often post personal items here. Liberty Just in Case is a political blog, after all. But the world lost a great woman yesterday, and that loss deserves mention.

I first met Margene in graduate school at Wheaton College. We were both pursuing our Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology. She and her husband Tom had come home from missionary work in Greece due to Margene's ongoing illness. That was 1992. Even then, Margene knew she was dying, knew it in that deep place of certainty.

In that first year of Grad school, we were in group therapy together, and her illness was a frequent topic. I could not understand why she wasn't angry, why she never showed anything but a deep, abiding peace in the midst of her great suffering. The more at peace she was, the more angry I became. It was not until years later that I came to understand her deep, living faith in Jesus Christ. Even now, fifteen years later, I don't fully understand how she could have had such peace. But she did. One thing that you cannot do in group therapy is hide your true feelings. Margene never tried to hide her suffering, but she never once used it as an excuse to whine either.

Over the years, Margene became a stabilizing force for my wife and I. She made a recieving blanket for our daughter when she was born in 1993, and another one for our son in 1995. Both still view those blankets as prized possessions, and sleep with them every night. Margene's daughter would often babysit for us. We hope and pray our daughter can grow up to be the shining light that Margene's daughter was and is.

Margene and Tom moved to Colorado a few years ago. By that time, Margene had a transplant of multiple organs, all at once. Despite complications, these transplants gave her a few more years of service. Service was Margene's life. She served others as naturally as breathing, as openly and without regard to self as walking. Toward the end, breathing and walking did not come naturally to Margene. But service did, right up to the end.

I've known many Christians over the years. But I've never met a person who so embodied the spirit of Servanthood as Margene. I will miss her. But there is no doubt in my mind or heart that I will see her again, fully restored to health. In the words of Paul from 1 Thessalonians Ch. 4:

13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Margene was a constant encouragement to all who knew her. She remains so, even though she has "fallen asleep." When that trumpet sounds, one of the first people I'll be looking for is my friend Margene.