I have just come in from a memorial service for Mallory Langill. It was amazing. The church was packed - and on a Friday morning - with children and adults. Many wore bright colors - oranges and pinks and purples, Mallory's favorite colors. Type Mallory Langill into a search engine on your computer - and you will find many, many links. So who was Mallory?
Mallory was a ray of sunshine. She was vibrant, joyful, full of love for Jesus and a faith in him that left many mature Christians way behind.
Yes, but who was she?
She was an adored daughter, a loyal and loving friend, a great joke teller, a big sister who in her short life of only seven years touched more lives than most of us will in a life time. At the age of 13 months, Mallory was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis a brutal disease with which she battled so bravely. She was not going to give in easily. Yet on 2 December 2007, she left her diseased body behind as she went to the arms of her Lord. We miss her. It is quite appropriate that the day she died was a gray, wet and miserable day to reflect the feelings of those of us left behind, grieving.
I'm kinda numb myself. How, as a parent, can you come to terms with the loss of a child? How do parents get through it? I don't know, I don't think they know themselves - having spoken to a few who have gone that way. It's just so wrong, so not the way God intended things to be. And yet we trust that ultimately he is in charge and one day, some day, there will be no more sickness, no more disease, no more sadness. Come Lord Jesus.
