We have just sent a prayer letter out. The first part was the sad news about mum, Janice Clark, who died on Friday 3rd September after suffering with cancer for over a year. Her funeral will be 14th September, with a thanksgiving on the 18th, both in Milton Keynes (ask for details). This isn’t the time or place for many words about her, but I wanted to write three things that we feel very strongly.
The first is that to be with Christ is better than to live, and so we are very glad for her because she has entered into God’s perfect rest, where there are no more tears, and we rejoice that she trusted him.
The second is that we will miss her very much, because she was mum and we have to wait to take our place in that perfect rest with Jesus and all the faithful who have gone before us.
The third is that we are moved and challenged by, and grateful for, a remarkable legacy that she has left. Lengthy tributes elsewhere, but she and dad taught us the gospel as children, taught and modelled contentment in Christ, set us an example of sacrifice for the sake of Christ and others, loved us well, and prayed so faithfully. (Dad showed us her prayer diary last week. It is remarkable in its comprehensiveness and consistency.) She wouldn’t want a focus on her now—her life and death point us upwards not backwards—but she would be thrilled to learn that her example lead to greater love and faithfulness on our part. God-willing, it will. I hope that my own children will look on the example of their mum and dad and know that they too have learned great treasures in such normal ways, and be encouraged that they have been taught by people who have been taught by, among others, my mum.
I love the fact that such a great example was set by such normal people, with no whistles and bells. It encourages and reminds me that our years are well spent if they are wasted in the cause of the gospel—not just in glamorous missionary fields, but at kids’ bedsides and around meal tables and in countless caring conversations with all sorts of people, all with the purpose of establishing others perfect in Christ—as she now truly is. And I am encouraged by the knowledge that this great work of making disciples is done by normal people with the simple truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ through open Bibles.
I don’t feel the need to look for silver linings in black clouds. The good things are plain to see, and mum’s death (which is really her life beginning as God always wanted it to be: face to face with him, no sin in her, no cause for sorrow, and unendingly glorious and glorifying) brings many of them into sharper focus for us.
I hope and pray that this encourages and challenges you in the same direction as it has us.
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