The following is a post written by my wife, Heather. She is a special woman with a special heart. 

Today marks the anniversary of a very special day. A day that I had prayed with all my heart to happen for 10 years. I met James the first day of my freshmen year of high school. I was entering the side door by the band hall so that I could put my clarinet up before heading to classes. There were two guys hanging out on the wall. I didn’t know this part until much later but that day James told his best friend, David, ‘that girl is going to be mine.’

That was the fall of 1987 and now it was the fall of 1997, James and I had married and had two children during this time. He loved his family. In our marriage, there were struggles as in some, but his struggles had weighed his heart down so. He believed in Jesus, but didn’t attend church with the kids and I. He worked most Sundays. He often told me, ‘ It’s  fine if you wanted to go to church and take the kids but just don’t push it on me’. Oh, how I cried many, many tears! My heart ached for him.

Then September 9, 1997 came. It was a normal early fall day. I left with the kids and headed to the Sweeny Christian School that morning where I was teaching the pre-K4 class, David was in 2nd grade at SCS, and Allison was in the 2-year-old class. At 2 o’clock when class ended, I went to the extended care classroom and was planning on working there until 6:00 p.m. It was a long day but many good times and friends were made along that journey. I had settled down with the little ones, including Allison, and was sitting on the floor when Billie Schroeder, the administrator, and Shari Schuerg walked into the room and said you need to come outside. The way she said it scared me. I didn’t know if it was David or what had happened. When I walked out into the hallway, there was James and our preacher, John Orr. James was leaning against the wall like the first time I had seen him except this time he was bent over and sobbing. My heart was pounding. I just knew something was wrong with David. Then John said the words I had waited to hear for so long. “Heather, James wants to put on the Lord in baptism.” James hugged me, started crying even more, and kept repeating, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry I waited so long.’ We immediately went upstairs to the auditorium to get James ready. There were only a handful of people there that day to witness his confession of faith.

God’s timing is truly perfect. Less than a year from that date, James would be diagnosed with a horrific and aggressive type of cancer-rhabdomyosarcoma. Eight months after his diagnosis he would succumb to the devastating disease. God knew his heart needed to be cleansed and made right. God knew our family needed him to be the Christian leader. The little bit of time that followed James’ baptism was some of the most precious we had as a ‘complete Christian family’. We attended services together. He spoke to this friends and colleagues about his new found faith in His Lord and Savior. He started serving on the Sweeny Christian School board. We started reading the Bible as a whole family and he started leading prayers at the table! It was a true miracle. God is so good!

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3:11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I had many questions during that time ~ not understanding why everything happened the way that it did. But then coming to a realization God is God. His ways are not understandable to our human minds ~ nor should they be. He is the author of our lives ~ the giver of life.

“You are the giver of life. Your light lets us enjoy life.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭36:9‬ ‭NCV‬‬

I’m so thankful that day came for James. I’m thankful it came for David, Allison, and myself. I’m thankful that it came for our extended family. God has worked many miracles since that time in our family using those difficult times to be a witness of God’s Love, Grace, and Redemption. His favorite scripture is what I will close with. God is sooo good!

“So these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:13‬ ‭NCV‬‬