July 15, 2008
Dear Carolyn,
I want to express my deepest sympathy to you and your family as Jack has passed on and entered into the eternal presence of our Lord. Since we learned of Jack’s cancer diagnosis, our hearts have been heavy and we have prayed for peace and comfort for Jack, you and your family.
I am grateful to you for establishing the Howard Family Blog. Through the blog, you have shared with us Jack’s and your family’s journey during his illness - the joys and the sorrows - and the beautiful testimony to his life found in the letters sent by family, friends, colleagues, and former students. I faithfully followed it throughout these months. I’d often read the blog just before retiring for the night, but then I couldn’t go to sleep because I was either sad thinking about your suffering or overwhelmed at how God used Jack in so many people’s lives.
Jack lived a blessed life and his life was a blessing to all who knew him. Jack was indeed a very special man. Each time I was with him, I was touched by his gentle, warm smile and manner. Throughout the years, Bill spoke of Jack with love; grateful for the lessons Jack taught him and the kindness Jack showed him. The message that keeps coming through in the letters to Jack and your family is the positive impact that he had on people’s lives. Jack touched people from every decade of his life!
Carolyn, years ago you told me that you’d get sermon tapes from a former pastor and you loved listening to them because he always pointed to Christ. Throughout his life, Jack pointed to Christ, not just by word but by deed - by the way he lived and worked and treated others. Jack faithfully used the intellectual gifts that God gave him to bring glory to God. Through his hard work, he made many contributions that benefited others and this pleased the Lord. Jack had the gift of encouragement and throughout his life he chose to encourage others and hence honored God. Even during the final months on this earth, Jack shared his love for Christ and the hope he had in Him.
Jack “spoke” of his love for the Lord by who he was and how he lived. This love didn’t just “leak out somewhere” as your dear pastor said. Anyone who reads the blog letters will see that Jack’s life overflowed with his love for Christ. He led a life of faith in God and obedience to His Word. I tell my children that if they obey the Lord – if they do what they know is right – then God is glorified, they will be blessed and they will be a blessing to others. Jack is the perfect example of this. The fruits he bore as a result of his obedience glorified the Lord and blessed others. Again, from the blog letters, you can see that throughout Jack’s entire life, he bore all of the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those fruits, given by the Spirit, were given not only for his benefit, but so that he could be a blessing to others. His family, friends, colleagues, and former students were the recipients of his love, his patience, his kindness, his goodness. Praise the Lord for His provision!
I have printed the contents of the blog. Bill and I have talked quite a bit about Jack this week. We want our children to read the blog, so that they can get a glimpse into the life of this wonderful, dear man. His character, his humility, his grace, his curiosity, his wisdom, his work ethic, his love for his family and the Lord beautifully appear in these pages. Jack was a gift to many! He lived a full, rich life, but to all who loved him, his life on earth ended too soon. Jonathan mentioned the number 7 on his July 7th blog. Bill reminded me that in scripture, the number 7 is used to show completeness. Because God’s will is perfect, Jack’s life on earth was complete on July 7, 2008. We don’t understand why God chose this moment for Jack to be with Him, but by faith we know that he is in the presence of our Lord.
Carolyn, again, I thank you for sharing these last months of Jack’s life with us. It was a beautiful testimony and God was glorified through it all. You and Jack were and always will be a great team. His legacy is a legacy of love. I’m quite sure that Jack “pressed” his goodness into his children. I encourage them to follow Jack’s example to seek to know, love, and obey the Lord Jesus. Their lives will be exciting and full of love, joy, peace, and blessings, and others will say, “he/she reminds me of Jack.”
My prayer for you and your children is from Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
I close with some scriptures that remind of Jack. I hope they will be an encouragement to you. What a blessing he was to all of us!
Sincerely,
Rosie
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“Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” John 14:23
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:1 – 7
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3: 12 - 17
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