{"id":6716,"date":"2023-01-21T21:55:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T01:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/?p=6716"},"modified":"2024-01-30T13:30:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T17:30:31","slug":"to-the-day-sitting-drawings-pictures-in-the-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/21\/to-the-day-sitting-drawings-pictures-in-the-sand\/","title":{"rendered":"To the Day of Sitting, Drawing Pictures In the Sand."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1-21-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this weekly blog I have been writing for almost 14 years I occasionally feel presumptuous on your attention as I attempt to share His messages. Eavesdropping, I consider it, on words that the Lord whispers and sometimes shouts to His children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I will be more personal than I sometimes am. One more \u201cshare,\u201d but with a lesson for others, I pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was 10 years ago, January 21, 2013, that my wife Nancy died. She led a remarkable life, touching many people while she lived as she reflected joy, through her manifold sufferings; and since her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had come home after college graduation and was promptly volunteered to be Sunday School Superintendent at my little church; I was introduced to Nancy the nursery-school teacher. She immediately struck me as the most beautiful girl I could ever meet, and that was a prophecy fulfilled \u2013 also her outward beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her nature can be illustrated by the first Sunday morning I visited her classroom. Utter chaos prevailed, kids screeching and climbing and doing everything possible. In their midst was gentle Nancy, urging, \u201cSimon says sit down\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first date was one month later to the day (a George Jones and Tammy Wynette concert) and one year later to the day I proposed. After we left the Chinatown restaurant Nancy called her family from a phone booth (kids, ask your grandparents what that is), and then I called a disk jockey I knew at WHN, the New York City radio station, and asked if he could maybe announce our news on the air. He did better, to our surprise. He invited us to the station. It was after midnight, and he instructed the guard in the lobby to let us enter, and he interviewed us on the air!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast-forward, another \u201cto the day\u201d anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot happened, of course, in between. We had a three-week European honeymoon. We had three wonderful children \u2013 Heather, Ted, and Emily \u2013 proud of them all; and four grandchildren. We lived in Weston, Connecticut; suburban Chicago; suburban Philadelphia; San Diego; and Michigan. We visited many national parks, had family vacations in Florida, Palm Springs, Europe, and points between. Many ups and a few downs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the \u201cdowns\u201d was her health. Diabetes had hit her at 13, and was the direct cause of eye troubles (virtually losing her sight twice), kidney failure, amputation of toes, and several strokes and heart attacks. She had heart and kidney transplants. She also endured celiac disease, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and when her new kidney was failing, early signs of dementia. Nevertheless she lived 16 years subsequent to the transplants, after being told she had \u201cgained\u201d possibly three to five years of extended life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy was not defined by her afflictions, however. She had a strong faith in God, and Jesus became her best Friend. Congenitally shy, she had a spiritual-heart transplant, so to speak, and became bold about sharing her faith. She started a family ministry at the hospital, all five of us holding services, visiting and praying with patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not true, nor fair to others with ailments, to say that she was never discouraged; eventually she grew sick and tired of being sick and tired. But, mostly, 15\/16ths was a good record of defiance against defeat. She said, rather, that she would not choose to go through again what she had\u2026 but she wouldn\u2019t trade her \u201cwalk\u201d for anything. She inspired uncountable people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her Bible \u2013 well worn, full of highlights, notes, margin comments \u2013 has, underscored, Romans 14:8: \u201cFor if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

I have claimed as a personal anthem of ours the words of the Gospel song The Far Side Banks of Jordan<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n

I believe my steps are growing wearier each day;<\/em>
Still I’ve got a journey on my mind.<\/em>
Lures of this old world have ceased to make me want to stay,<\/em>
And my one regret is leaving you behind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if it proves to be His will that I am first to go,<\/em>
\nAnd somehow I’ve a feeling it will be,<\/em>
\nWhen it comes your time to travel likewise, don’t feel lost<\/em>
\nFor I will be the first one that you’ll see.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this life we\u2019ve labored hard to earn our meager fare,<\/em>
\nIt\u2019s brought us trembling hands and failing eyes.<\/em>
\nSo I\u2019ll just rest here on the shore and turn my eyes away<\/em>
\nUntil you come, then we\u2019ll see Paradise!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019ll be waiting on the far side banks of Jordan;<\/em>
I’ll be sitting, drawing pictures in the sand.<\/em>
And when I see you coming, I will rise up with a shout<\/em>
And come running through the shallow waters, reaching for your hand<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

+ + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click: Far Side Banks of Jordan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1-21-23 In this weekly blog I have been writing for almost 14 years I occasionally feel presumptuous on your attention as I attempt to share His messages. Eavesdropping, I consider it, on words that the Lord whispers and sometimes shouts to His children. Today I will be more personal than I sometimes am. One more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[53,2698,2706],"tags":[3685,3684,600,1045,981,543,920,3683],"class_list":["post-6716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-love","category-obedience","tag-del-demontreaux","tag-emily-joy-mccorkell","tag-heather-shaw","tag-kris-kristofferson","tag-nancy-marschall","tag-patty-loveless","tag-ted-marschall","tag-terry-smith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bRYz-1Kk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6716"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7453,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions\/7453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}