You Shall Be Witnesses

Last Tuesday, as Val's 6th chemo regimen was just beginning, a tall girl came in and identified herself as a social worker from Dr. Drazin's office. After a few words of obligatory hello, she asked Nancy and I to leave. In a moment, I realized that this well meaning person wanted to talk to my daughter about life and death.
I spent the next half hour sitting somewhere trying to look calm and cool in front of my wife and everyone else. In truth, I was churning on the inside wondering how Val would handle this encounter.
When I couldn't stand it any more, I walked back into the Infusion Center. Val was in her room. The social worker was gone. And what was Val doing? Laughing and chatting on the phone with her friend Mary Anne.
I asked Val about her discussion. It was pretty much what I expected. I mean, what else can a social worker talk about? Although sincere, her perspective is based only on the world we see. Life and death. That great divide.
Apparently most of the conversation between Val and the social worker came from Val telling this gal that the world's view doesn't quite get it right. Way to go girl!
That, Dear Saints of God Most High, is what the hymn writer meant when she wrote, "Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine."
Jesus' last words to his followers before He left were, "You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth."
Valerie Sloan McCrea fulfilled this great commission on Tuesday, June 17, 2006 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California. And God is well pleased!

Val's Dad