Ruth Colyer, my mother-in-law, died July 20th, Sunday morning, 2008. Many of you, my readers, have prayed for her and kept watch over her, here and on my other web pages as to her progress during her illness. We are saddened deeply by losing her, but she has gone on to be with the Lord Jesus to His place He has prepared for her. Thank you all for your prayers, your concern, and your faith in our God who decided to bring her home. I wanted to offer a few words of encouragement in light of her death.
1. Ruth came to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a young girl. I sat with her several years ago as she told me her testimony. She told of how as she sat in church one day, she was convicted of her sin and the truth that Jesus died to pay for her sin. She told me about trusting Him that day, and how that she had never changed her mind about what He did for her. She said she had been following Him since that time, and her life showed it: her love for Him, His church, and His kingdom. She lived a life in which she blessed others for God, not least of them, myself. I was a wandering soul when I began to date her daughter, but Ruth influenced me, by strong example, to follow the path of discipleship that leads to Christian hope. I will thank her for that always, until the day I again see her face.
2. Ruth fulfilled her calling as a Christian mother. She always urged her daughter and husband to follow the way of God. She did the most important thing as a parent, which is to have a Christian home. As an extension of her natural family, she helped raise many other children as a caretaker, helping them to grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. She was a mother to many children, not just Teya, and will be missed by all of them.
3. Ruth endured trial with faith, even when she was shaken. Cancer was a horror for Ruth, and it took away most of her health in this world before she died. She desired to be healed, but was willing to accept that she might not be healed. I prayed with her not long ago, that God might heal her, but if not, He might have mercy on her as her health declined, and that he might help her to endure the great trial that death is. As I prayed, she quietly whispered "amen" to either path God might lead her on.
Like my great-grandmother, I had a mother-in-law that I would say lived "A beautiful life" for her LORD. She, like all people, struggled from time to time, but she focused, at her end, and on the fact that there will be "no tears in heaven" (her words in her last days). My prayer for all of us, is that we would emulate her good qualities, and prepare for the day when we must all meet Christ, and having prepared fully to meet Him, meet Ruth also.
