I'm glad to have photos of friends in my photo album. This spot is dedicated to this precious couple seen here at their anniversary celebration. Occasionally on the photos I take when I travel, I capture a random person passing by the sights that I'm shooting - someone asks, who's that? I say just a random person. Tom and Elaine, however, are not a random couple caught by chance in a picture, they are long time friends. They were at our wedding. They have sat with our kids. They invited us over for a ski party when we were newlyweds. We have their old refrigerator - still works. We've celebrated Thanksgiving together. We've shared many dinner nights out together. They were friends of my wife's parents before we were married. Elaine is my wife's friend, Tom is my friend, together as couples we're friends - a unique, God given friendship. We have missed them since they moved to Colorado awhile ago.
I was reading Matthew chapter 20 this past week, where Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. He hired more workers at 9am, noon, 3 pm, and 5 pm, before making payroll at 6 pm. All of the workers received the same pay. Jesus was quoted as saying, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Tom died this past week. He had suffered with cancer for 6 months. Tom was always respectful of us and our faith, but was a nearly lifelong skeptic in his own faith. Throughout his life he was a good man. He worked hard, he designed and operated his own car wash and car repair business. He raised a family.
We prayed for Tom's salvation through the years, and more fervently these past 6 months since hearing the diagnosis. The best thing that I was privileged to hear from Elaine was that Tom had placed his trust in the Lord. Tom was a worker who went into the vineyard at 5 pm. It's now 6 pm, and he's on the receiving end of the payroll. He made payrolls throughout his business career, sometimes cutting his own pay as small business owners do. This payroll was not of his own making. Tom didn't trust in himself for salvation - he trusted in his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It was no coincidence that Elaine was impressed by the Lord to have Matthew 20 read at Tom's memorial service - it's a witness of the truth of the gospel! It was a blessing to me to have just read those words - now impressed deeper on my heart by love of the Lord for His people.
This message is for Elaine, Aron, Adam and Holly: We know that you grieve your loss right now of your husband and your father. We grieve the loss of a friend. We celebrate together the knowledge that he has been changed. He's experiencing the words of the song,
No more night,
And no more pain,
No more fears,
Never crying again.
And praises to,
The Great I Am,
We will live in the light,
Of the Risen Lamb.
God Bless You!
