Sunday, January 11, 2015

Courage

Do you know who Kathy Taylor is?  I didn't either until this Lifenews story profiling her courageous (and short) battle to give her unborn son, Luke, a chance at life, despite the aggressive melanoma that had spread throughout her body during her pregnancy.  She passed on New Year's Day, at the too-young age of 33, preceded by Luke, who was delivered prematurely and died at two weeks of age.  It is a tremendously sad story, and my heart breaks for her husband, Nathan, and their five older children.


Nathan has been blogging at Kathy's Miracle, both during her struggle with the terrible disease,and in the week or so since her passing.  You will have to read the blog to grasp the emotions.  Of course there is pain beyond what those of us who have not experienced the untimely loss of a spouse cannot imagine, though as he keenly points out in the January 6 post, "Perfected in Christ," all who truly share the depth of the bond of married love, as it was intended by, will one day feel.

But that is not all...

What pervades his writing is a sense of (1) hope beyond the pain, of rejoicing in the perfection of character that the pain brings about and hope in Resurrection and the future life to come, where the very real but temporary pain and struggle of this world will be a distant memory; and (2) of real courage, the kind of courage that, along with hope, pulls through the pain and fear.

Kathy's story--and Nathan's after their passing--beyond all else is one of courage.