Farewell My Lovely

She was 18 months younger than me, was and still is - even with age - the loveliest woman I have ever seen.  Her beauty was almost haunting, in fact something about that beauty troubled me through all of these decades up until this week.

She was a model, a very successful one.  The only reason she even came to my attention was was as a teenager she had managed to take a wrong turn in life - and what a side road that one was!  She was one of the two compelling forces behind my lifelong outreach to teenagers, so that they may avoid the pitfalls of the road she chose to travel.  And, so few will listen - so many end up just like her.....  Much to the glee of a world bent upon destroying innocence.


Now, 38 years later she is brought back to mind.  My hometown news had a short article concerning her death.  Like so many whom have traveled her path, she finally succumbed to "cancer".  A nice euphemism for a long lingering, sexually transmitted death sentence leaving the victim with lots of time to think - I hope about her Creator!  But I fear it was not so.  Her parents were atheists and so apparently are her children.

Children?  I never gave much thought about her having a family!  She was a daughter - she had a father and mother.  I had originally thought someone in her family had broken that fragile image of God in her.  And yet in later life she had abandoned her destructive path she was on and led a very conventional life.  So, the fault was not there.  Teachers?  Friends?  Dirty old men in the village?  College guys?  I have no idea what took this young lady from a small village in dairy country to the spotlight of the world and to what should have been the shame for any family.

She will soon be forgotten by the world of sin which made her famous - just another example of what "will never happen to me!" syndrome of our youth today.  Someone's daughter, sister, friend, mother died and her legacy now lies in the realm of the world.  The lure of sin, "without consequences" compels our youth today.  At least until they too find out that there is no sin "without consequences''.....

Yesterday that haunting question returned: what had set her apart in my mind, other than her beauty?  I dug out her high school picture and looked once again at her face.  Being older and wiser I quickly was able to answer that question - it was her eyes.  Those young 17 year old eyes I had first seen, were filled with sadness and pain.  I saw it now, I had not seen it 38 years ago because I had not experienced life yet.  Apparently she had and had set herself upon a course of self destruction.  Unfortunately, that self destruction became a time bomb waiting to go off oh so many years later - after she had straighten herself out.....

As her sister would say, "And where is justice or equality or a God for that matter, when someone so young and so beautiful should suffer such a horrible death?"

Indeed, where was God?  Waiting for her to turn to Him - of her own free will, in a broken world and shattered by sin. Just as He does for each one of us.

And that is where He has always been - leaving us the freedom to condemn ourselves to a horrible death out of sheer ignorance or stupidity - because He wants us to turn to Him - and sometimes we have to be mighty low before we can look up and see Him......

Harsh but reality bites when you do not play by the Creator's rules.