{"id":3551,"date":"2016-07-18T11:13:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T18:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=3551"},"modified":"2016-07-18T11:14:44","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T18:14:44","slug":"esther-boss-a-new-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2016\/esther-boss-a-new-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Boss: A New Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Esther<\/a>I got word early this morning that she died during the night.<\/p>\n

In the last few days, we prayed often for God’s best for her, deeply hoping that meant a miraculous healing of her long-running rheumatoid arthritis and just-discovered bone cancer.<\/p>\n

Instead, God’s best for her meant exchanging her ruined body for something new.<\/p>\n

That faith does not erase the pain of loss for her husband Marvin and the rest of her family.<\/p>\n

Such reassuring Christian hope does not eliminate the emptiness they feel.<\/p>\n

They. We.<\/p>\n

But believe and hope we shall.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Heaven, such glory for Esther!<\/p>\n

And such glory for the Redeemer-Lamb who won her back to Himself and kept her for Himself! <\/p>\n

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints”<\/span> (Psalm 116:15).<\/p>\n

In such truths we find comfort.<\/p>\n

God is good and does all things well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(The human side of me fears to say that.)<\/p>\n

Terminal bone cancer. A few days left of life on earth. One of my peers in my home congregation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, good God, not again!\u201d I exclaimed within myself at the stunning news Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does God figure these things out?\u201d I asked a friend rhetorically Wednesday night in the church parking lot.<\/p>\n

Strength from the Almighty<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems a long time since one of my church peers died. In fact, it may have been her sister-in-law Corrine<\/a>, fifteen years ago. Wow. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

As I commented (to Esther’s brother-in-law, her daughter-in-law, and her fourth son — in that order) on Facebook shortly after getting the news of Esther’s death…<\/p>\n

The Good Shepherd who knew it best to take her, did not leave His own alone here. I am comforted by that. But the pain… The Lord bears that with them…and the rest of us…as well. Truly He has borne our sorrows.<\/p>\n

And now, as you move into a new phase, may the Good Shepherd who took her be your comfort and strength. May His grace and peace sustain you and make your life rich. We continue to grieve with you and for you. <\/p>\n

I continue to pray for you and the rest of your family, though no longer for you Mom. I cannot wrap my mind around your loss, but I share a portion of it in my heart. The God of all comfort is near you all — us all, truly — may He sustain and enrichen as only He can.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Esther<\/p>\n

Oh, and about the photo of Esther at the top of this post. It was taken shortly after noon on the day her middle son Brandon married my niece Karina<\/a>. That was February 6, 2010.<\/p>\n

And at the right is one I took of Esther and Ruby (my wife) visiting at a youth-parent event back on February 24, 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God exchanged her ruined body for something new.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,704],"tags":[641,186],"class_list":["post-3551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-101","category-thankful","tag-death","tag-hope"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-Vh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}