The Shepherd Showed Up​!
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​* * Book Excerpt * *

8
Love is Eternal
There is no fear in love; 
but perfect love casts out fear.
1 John 4:18a NASB
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Valentine’s Day 2018 dawned. In our fifty years together, David always wowed me with over-the-top flowers. He knew what I liked. A deep blue hydrangea in a 10-gallon pot for the garden. Or a sweet-smelling jasmine plant wrapped around a heart-shaped wire. Or a floribunda rose bush bursting with yellow blooms. But this Valentine’s Day had no flowers. Not even a card. We were six days out from the ENT’s diagnosis of my forever groom’s terminal cancer.  

I didn’t verbalize it, but deep down I suspected this would be our last Sweetheart’s Day together. David would have scoffed at my negativity. Didn’t I understand? He planned to beat this rare and highly aggressive anaplastic thyroid cancer, which we were told was untreatable and incurable.

What can we do to rescue this day of love from the obituary page? I pondered. 

David liked my idea to go to our favorite glass-blowing studio so he could buy each daughter a valentine heart. He knew as well as I did that our three adult daughters were still reeling from the text I’d sent less than a week before. “Bad, bad, bad news!”

Our mood was somber as we arrived at the Glass Forge in Grants Pass, Oregon. My heart was heavy as I envisioned the predicted role change from wife to widow. But Papa was on a mission—to find three perfect hearts. He studied and restudied the display cases containing hand-sized hearts of all colors in the rainbow. For Emily he chose the one containing a sparkly botanical green pattern atop a gold backdrop. Betsy’s heart was filled with multiple waves of blue, including the aquamarine color of her Papa’s eyes. Naphy’s contained vivid pinks and purples shaped like a blossom.  

While we were finalizing our purchase, four men—a barbershop quartet, mind you—came through the door. Approaching us, they stopped, forming a semicircle around us. Then they began singing. To us! Is this really happening? We shared the wonder. 
Let me call you sweetheart, 
I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper 
that you love me too. 
Keep the lovelight glowing 
in your eyes so blue. 
Let me call you sweetheart, 
I’m in love with you.5
​The music transported me back in time. We were young and in love riding around campus in David’s baby blue Triumph convertible. How sweet the springtime of our lives! Now winter storms loomed with the love of my life facing death. My thoughts raced to a newly forming rut of fear. 

But wait a minute! Hadn’t the Shepherd of love just orchestrated a barbershop quartet’s private serenade for David and Judy? Hadn’t the God of the universe decided our love was worthy of a song? Mr. Blue Eyes was alive today. That’s what counted. Our love could endure anything. Our love was eternal.

Though I had no flowers from my groom, though a deadly disease threatened to move him from earth to heaven, didn’t the Good Shepherd just rescue our Sweetheart Day? Needless to say, we both knew Who to thank for the serenade! Indeed, He was worthy of my trust.
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My revived heart smiled all the way home. Having been a sorority girl, I always dreamt of swooning as some fraternity boys serenaded me with their “Sweet Heart of Sigma Chi” song. That never happened. Instead, the caring Shepherd saved the day with His own serenade—a God Serenade—that plucked me out of my obituary-mindset, providing strength I would need for the journey ahead. 
Reflections
Have you thrilled to be part of a love story? Have you vowed to love another until death do you part? When those words are spoken, death feels an eternity away. Even if death comes decades or half a century later, it feels too soon. 

I’m shocked how totally unprepared David and I were when death ravaged our love story. His death came quickly. For others it may be slow. For some it may be an emotional death due to declining health, a loss of independence, or a divorce.
 
Grief is a painful normal when life as we’ve known it ends. How will we survive the overwhelming sadness? Loneliness. Instability. Sleepless nights. How do we handle the new responsibilities and challenges? How do we handle the dailies when we’re stuck on the question, “Why am I still here?”

Most of us do survive, but where does our strength come from? Maybe you’ve been able to pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Maybe you’ve survived with the help of others. Maybe you—like the Squier Family—give the credit to our Shepherd God. The Creator of eternal love. And eternal life. He provided answers, helpers, and Himself to get us through.
 
Who are you depending on to get you through the pain? Time definitely reduces the pain. Yes indeed, we do get through it, but not over it. ​
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Excerpted from The Shepherd Showed Up! by Judy Squier Copyright © 2022 by Judy Squier. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author.
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