“Julie…Come home!”
That was my fifty-two year old friend’s plea to his wife Julie for the last ten days of his life last month.
He was dying a horrific death due to a horrific cancer that horrifically devoured his six foot, GQ chiseled frame until he was barely recognizable with his weight plummeting to double digits.
Peaceful is not the word that would describe his last days.
Piercingly painful would be a better description.
For the remaining family members surrounding his bed their pain was equally piercing with the feeling of utmost helplessness.
My friend’s wife Julie was out of town receiving a job promotion.
My friend would call every day and beg.. “Julie… Come home!”
My friend’s son would call every day and beg…”Mom…Dad is dying. Come home!”
On the tenth day, my friend made one last call to his wife…
“Julie… Come home!”
Julie deliberately stayed away from home…
Julie inexplicably wouldn’t come home..
Julie didn’t come home..
And then…
God called my friend home.
My friend gracefully and quietly obliged, dying in the house he had called home, surrounded by his loving family…minus one.
Seven days later Julie showed up in time for the funeral…
SeeingGodatWorkEveryDay…
May I just offer two words of counsel?
COME HOME!
If that means getting in the car and driving over to a loved one’s home…
If that means swiping open your phone app on your iPhone…
If that means sitting down at a laptop and composing an email…
If that means Facetiming or Skyping…
If that means going “old school” and pulling out a pen and paper with a #10 envelope and a forty-eight cent stamp…
Whatever it means to you, just COME HOME!
Let your loved ones know that you
Treasure them…
Cherish them…
Admire them…
Love them…
Appreciate them…
Forgive them…
Honor them…
Value them…
Adore them…
Remember them…
And maybe, just maybe
by coming home,
the ones who matter most to you will face the day ahead with their hearts bursting with an abundance of love and grace.
If you decide to stay where you are
I would hate for you to live with the haunting words
my friend’s wife has to live with…
“Julie… Come home!”
My prayer is that Julie will come home
And
may you too…
To all of my friends…wherever you may be..how blessed am I to know you and love you and to be known by you and to be loved by you. Each of you make up a piece of the grand puzzle that God has so gracefully designed for me over the last 52 years. I wouldn’t be the same without you! The puzzle is far from complete as more friends will continue to fill in the spaces until the day when the full picture comes into glorious view and God finally says to me, “David…Come home!”

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
(1 Corinthians 15. 57-58 ESV)

SeeingGodatWorkEveryDay…
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!
David@seeinggodatworkeveryday.com