So, it seems I have lost another friend. Karen. Playing her flute at the feet of Jesus even as I type, no doubt. In truth, I did not know Karen well, but I loved her. It's a little complicated. Karen was a woman who loved the Lord with all her heart. She also loved her husband, her daughter, her churches, her Bible study mates. She did indeed love to play the flute for the glory of God, but what made all of this remarkable was the fact that she had Cystic Fibrosis. Two other people in my life have had Cystic Fibrosis. One was my cousin, Connie, who died from complications of the disease when she was about 11. The other was a boy named Mark, who passed at 15, also from the complications of CF. Had they lived, they would have been close to Karen in age. Karen was a miracle, and she knew it. She lived like a miracle, loving God with all her heart, enjoying her family to the fullest extent, loving other people deeply, playing the flute in defiance of her disease- a disease which should have made flute playing impossible. To me, she represented my friends who lost their fights with CF years ago. I loved her because she was alive- she did not squander that precious gift that she had been given. She lived with courage and poured herself into the lives of others.
Play on Karen, play on.
Play on Karen, play on.
