God Wins Every Time

We had a dear friend from church. She was an elderly lady and many of these elderly ladies have a lifetime of tales to tell about their walk with the Lord. You know the kind. There is something more precious, more real, more gripping about their love for Jesus because they've lived it so long, cemented it with more experience, sealed it with more practice. And it is reflected in their love for others.

Well, one day quite recently she -- let's call her Ellie -- tried to log into the Zoom Life Group gathering. Ellie was about to ask for prayer when she made some strange remarks and dropped out. Not long thereafter we found out that she had had a potential stroke. Days later she came home from the hospital without a stroke. Instead, the doctor found a brain tumor. Not only that, a terminal brain tumor. Only months to live.

Well, Ellie was really something to see. She perked right up. Aches and pains and worries about her weight or her sore joints were gone. She saw clearly that she had nothing to lose but the chance to glorify God by sharing Christ with anyone who would listen. "Let me tell you about my Jesus." She was slowed physically by the rascally tumor (which she named), but she wasn't deterred emotionally or spiritually. She was on a mission to share her love for Christ with anyone and everyone, believers and unbelievers alike.

It has been a few months now and a day after we had dinner with her we received word that Ellie was in distress. The tumor was affecting her motor skills and her memory and was confusing her. It was painful to watch. It was kind of like watching one of those TV series named for your favorite doctor or cop character or whatever. He finds himself in dire straits. Even at risk of death. Oh, no, the bad stuff is happening! And you feel tense about it. Oh, it's foolish, of course. If the character were to die, the show would be over. That won't happen. So you take the scary ride even though you know how it comes out.

We knew how this would come out. Ellie would go home to be with her precious Savior. She did just that Saturday morning. It would have been fun if she were to have had that tumor healed. But it didn't matter. God wins. Every time. No matter what. So we took the scary ride and we held our breath. We wept with her as she wept and we prayed for her in her difficult moments. And we waited to see what God would do. We walked with her through the valley of death fearing no evil. Because God wins every time. He won, again, yesterday morning, when He called Ellie to her eternal reward. We will miss you, dear sister.