On September 6, 2012, Summer died as the result of a car accident. Summer was a great-great granddaughter of William and Rosa Rainey, whereas I am a great-granddaughter. A few months after her death, her mother, Janice Funkhouser Goad and I had a time to visit. At that time, Janice shared this experience with me. Today seemed the appropriate time to post Janice's powerful account of God's faithfulness. With Janice's permission, I retell her story. It is her hope that all who read this will be sure that they have trusted Jesus to give them eternal life because of His death on the cross for all humankind.
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| Janice's favorite photograph of her youngest daughter. |
(I gave permission for this story to first appear as a tribute from Summer's family in the September 1, 2015 issue of "The Pawnee Chief.")
Janice bent over slowly to light the small candle on the end
table in the living room during the late afternoon. A light fragrance drifted
throughout the room lifting her mood just with a quick whiff of the pleasing
aroma.
The kitchen needed some attention. As she cleaned and tidied,
her mind drifted to the recent events. The fatal car accident that took the
life of her youngest daughter reopened the wound in her heart from several
years earlier when her only son died. She had leaned on the Lord during that
time as He reassured her of His presence and of the reality of eternity. Never
did she dream she would be in this same heart-wrenching grief sequence again.
Putting the final touches on the kitchen cleanup, she walked
back into the living room with thoughts of sadness and loss lingering in her
mind, only to be startled by a sinister-looking shadow on the wall. How evil
and threatening it appeared pervading
and ominous in the living room!
Suddenly she heard in a still, small voice, “It is only a
shadow. A shadow cannot hurt you.” Immediately she recalled, “Yea though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art
with me.”
It is the cold shadow of death that separates us from our loved
ones. Yet it is only a shadow, because Jesus conquered death on the cross
putting it under His blood. She sensed His still, small voice whispering, “It
is only a shadow. A shadow can’t hurt you.”
The reality in the room was the tiny flame of the candle.
Janice meditated on Jesus’ confirmation, “I am the Light of the world.” He who
is the Light also is the Resurrection and the Life. Janice could be confident
that those she loved who had trusted in Jesus as Savior were experiencing the
Light of Jesus in His presence in heaven.
Deep within, she became so assured that we see through a glass
darkly as we gaze at eternity from here on earth. Janice found herself saying confidently
with David following his young son’s death as recorded in 2 Samuel 12: “…Can I
bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
Death is only a shadow seeking to frighten, immobilize, and
devastate but as John wrote of Jesus as life and “The life was the light of
men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” In
this same way, the tiny flickering glow illuminated the room and only in the
darkness was the shadow so menacing. If we focus on the eternal light of Jesus,
we can understand the temporal sting of death and look beyond to the joy of
eternity with Him and our loved ones. |
| A photo from Gladys Rainey Smith's collection of Sammy Jack Goad, Summer's father. Sam, as we now refer to him, was my grandmother's great-nephew. My grandmother, Gladys Rainey Smith, and his grandmother, Daisy Dean Rainey Rice, were sisters. |
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