Yesterday throughout the United States people were looking up at the sky with special glasses on. The glasses were designed to block the rays of the sun that the moon didn’t block. It was one of those events that doesn’t happen often. The moon was lined up between the sun and the earth for a limited time. In some places it was close to a 100% blockage. To others like where I live it was closer to 80. Still it was a sight that people were lined up to see with glasses in place. Some places went dark in the middle of the day. Others like mine became dull and reminded me of the darkened horizon before the sun sets.
This past week I have noticed a bright light missing from my computer. I discovered the light a couple of years ago when a skinny lady from Kenya with a huge smile and a joyous attitude entered my computer world. Her name was Lydia Jeritoch although I noticed that many people called her Jeritoch. I wasn’t sure if I was calling her by her proper name but she assured me that either was acceptable. One day someone shared one of my stories with Lydia and the next thing I knew there was a request on my Facebook page to accept her friendship. Not knowing her I sent a message asking why she wanted to be my friend? I don’t remember how she responded but I’m thinking she told me she read a story and that she was a Christian. However it happened she became a tremendous blessing in my life, an avid supporting friend, and an enthusiastic supporter of my writing. Although our initial meeting was somewhat dim in my memory, the light she shined since has lit up my computer screen for the last two years.
Lydia started posting her story in pieces on her Facebook page. After reading parts of her story I felt like I should write about her. It would be an expanded version of the basic facts she had which made the story flow. Before I did anything I asked her for permission. People are not always interested in being the feature of a story that many will read. Lydia was overjoyed that I thought she was worthy enough to write about. That attitude was so impressive about Lydia. She never put herself above others. She was super happy that this blessing had come into her life!
I gave Lydia my email and asked her to fill in the blanks that I questioned in her story. Each question I asked she graciously gave me inside details that made her story easy to write. Her story was unusual as far as topics I usually write about. It told the story of a young skinny girl in a far off city struggling to breathe. Among her other struggles was a struggle to trust doctors for fear that their agenda was just to take her money. In writing her story I felt her struggles as she lived with a condition that had to be scary and difficult to adjust to. The story turned out very beautiful and Lydia was overjoyed. Before I put it out there I gave her a preview and asked her to correct any faults in the story. The only mistake she found was the size of the university she attended. I think it was the second largest and I thought it was the third. The link to her beautiful story is listed below.
Finally the work was done and I put Lydia’s story out there. I contacted her and told her it was there and I hoped she was pleased with it. I have never written a story before where the subject was so thrilled! Lydia could not stop thanking me and complimenting me for picking her to lift up. I told her how it was a beautiful story because the subject was so beautiful. When the story hit the page there was a tremendous response especially from her home country Kenya. People started leaving comments and many of them remembered Lydia but had been out of touch for a long time. I noticed the tremendous number of comments that people left for her story. Upon further examination I realized that when anyone wrote a comment Lydia patiently took the time to respond to that person individually and personally. She was thrilled that people loved her story and that special touch of giving each a personal message of encouragement was how she showed her love.
Many months passed since that delightful time. Lydia was thrilled when at the end of 2015 her story was the lightenload story of the year! Since she was in Kenya and our time zones are so far apart we didn’t always see each other online. However there were times that I woke up in the middle of the night and there she would be. She posted about how great her God was often and I could always feel the joy in her heart. At the end of 2015 I was having my own health issues. They wanted to do a bunch of tests on me that left me wondering if my time here was limited. One night I saw Lydia and asked her to pray for me. Lydia was only too happy to and I knew that she was a friend I could count on and really cared!
A few weeks later the tests were done and I was pleased to tell Lydia the happy news that after much testing nothing was found! If it were possible I think she was even more ecstatic than I was! She mentioned that she was weeping with joy! My story link is listed below.
About a week ago I happened to get on Facebook and Lydia’s picture was staring at me. Someone was breaking the news that Lydia had passed away. From the details I could gather she had been in the hospital for only a couple of days. It seemed that she was having heart issues again. Just the day before I had seen a post that Lydia made in which she was glorifying God in her typical way. Nothing was mentioned about any discomfort she was going through. It was obvious she had her sights on encouraging others and not complaining about her own problems.
The eclipse yesterday to me is a reminder of her. Though her light may have seemed to diminish much like when the moon got in front of the sun it found a way to shine through. Eventually the moon passed from the line of the sun and we realized what a wonderful beautiful gift the sun is. That is how it is with Lydia’s light to me. Without it being present I notice that a true friend has departed. Although it was never going to work out where I would actually meet her in person, someday I will. Until we meet again I will never forget the light that she gave which shined for her God to a hurting world. Her light is physically gone now and Facebook is much dimmer, but Heaven is a little brighter.
When I went to church as a teenager they didn’t have the rock sounding music that so many churches offer today. I remember one Sunday night the song leader talked specifically to the youth section. “Tonight we are going to sing only rock songs”, he offered. Of course we were looking forward to a change of beat from the usual hymns. What followed was the hymns, (Rock of Ages), (Jesus Is The Rock of My Salvation), (The Solid Rock), and other “rock songs.” One of the hymns I remember us singing back then was called (It is Well With My Soul). I remember it especially because it was a song that had an echo in it. The main words would go (It is well) with some of the people doing that part while a few other ones echoed the phrase (It is well) in another key. The same echo was done with the words (With my Soul). Anyway it was a memorable song and seemed to be about a person happy in life because they had the spirit of God in their soul! Maybe this was a person that everything went right for and God seemed to bless at every step. We’ve all seen those people that in our eyes everything seems to to be perfect. They have the perfect family, have the perfect job, the nicest things, and it seems the sun is always shining on them. Sure they can sing “It is Well With My Soul.” For those people everything always goes right.
Horatio G. Spafford lived in the 1800’s. He was a very successful Lawyer and Businessman. He lived in Chicago Illinois with his wife Anna and their five children, 4 daughters and a son. In 1871 tragedy hit the family as their son fell victim to pneumonia and that same year much of their business was destroyed by the great Chicago fire. With trusting hearts they carried on and God had mercy on them as their business started to prosper again. Their faith was a big part of their lives and by 1873 things were looking up. All six of them made plans to take an ocean liner overseas for a family vacation in Europe. Horatio was all ready to accompany his family when out of the blue an urgent business matter came up. It would take several meetings and Horatio was forced to delay his trip. He urged his wife and children to start on without him and he promised to meet up with them a few days later (taking another ship).
Anna and her four daughters boarded the ship along with 308 other passengers and crew. The French ocean liner was called the “Ville du Havre” and it was a big impressive ship. It was 421 feet long and weight 395 tons! Four days into their journey through heavy fog the unexpected happened. A huge iron-hulled Scottish ship called the Loch Earn collided with their ship. Without warning all of the passengers were in great danger. Anna ran up to the deck and met with her daughters. They all knelt together and prayed that God would spare their lives but if not that they would be able to endure whatever awaited them. Tragically 226 passengers and crew from the ship parrished that night including Horatio’s four daughters. A woman was seen clinging to ship wreckage by a sailor in a small boat. It was Anna and she was alive. She was rescued to another liner and nine days later a wire was received by Horatio. The message was brief but to the point “Saved alone, what shall I do?” Hurriedly Horatio boarded the next liner and headed off to meet his grieving wife.
About four days into the trip the captain called Horatio and told him they were now directly over the area where the tragedy occurred. The Holy Spirit must have been guiding Horatio’s thoughts as he wrote the now famous lyrics on that ship amidst his grief and pain in the most heartbreaking time of his life “It is Well With My Soul.” You see in every ship that has sank there was the same cause. There may have been different ways that it occurred but the diagnosis has always been the same. More water was getting in than was staying out. When the ships got weighted down they sank. Horatio was determined with God’s help to keep his ship afloat. He didn’t get into the blame game where the weight of the tragedy could get inside of him. Instead he chose to keep all of that on the outside. He showed us how we need to live our lives by the example he left. Though the storms were raging on the outside he refused to let any of that disturb the peace that was on his inside. These beautiful words that Horatio wrote with the waves badgering his ship have blessed many hearts and lives through the years!
lightenload 