Yesterday marked 4 years since Tom passed away. It feels appropriate to write this as I think of him and his impact on my life. In my previous post on Deep Calls to Deep, I wrote briefly about Tom and his cancer diagnosis and how it affected me.
As the weeks went on and it was seemingly likely that barring a miracle, Tom was soon to be with the Lord. And I’m not sure how or when but I decided one day that I wanted to write a song for him. Tom was excited (as he usually is) about it. He loved my music and was one of my biggest fans. He used to play my CD in his car and would proudly tell people who it was. I miss him. Back to the song, though…
One of Tom’s favorite passages was Isaiah 60:1-3
Isaiah 60 – Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your
dawn.
This passage had been given to him earlier in his life and he would say that he only began to realize it more fully through his time at Colby-Sawyer College. There, he met students from all over the world and he saw it his mission to reach them all with the love of Jesus. And I cannot even begin to describe the amazing ways in which he did that. When he was diagnosed, he was even more sure of his purpose to reach others for Christ and he did not hold back on sharing the love of God. Be it the nurses in the hospital, the co-workers, students and even the random waitress at a restaurant, Tom was faithful to proclaim the good news. He showed what it meant in living and even in dying, to testify of God.
There was no question what I was going to name the song: it’s Tom’s. He planned his celebration of life service and asked me if I could sing his song there. Tearfully, I agreed. A memory that will never leave me is when I visited him (which also happened to be the last time) and got to sing the song to him. As God would have it, a few international students happened to be visiting him also and Tom told them that I was going to sing the song there and then. Most of them did not know the Lord and as I sang the words, Tom and I looked at each other…
Oh that the nations will see that You are worthy
Lord be glorified in me
You alone are the King, You deserve the glory
May they know Your love through me
Here’s the video of the song, sung publicly for the very first time, captured by dear Tom :’)
Testing