A Tribute for Denise

It is 6:31 on Monday morning. I have been staring at the screen, praying, staring at the screen. There is so much to say and yet, nothing. We have common thoughts in an uncommon moment. The heart reaches but the mind, the mind rotates, rests, and churns its footless legs. How then can an ordinary man speak anything worthwhile about an extraordinary woman, and friend, and wife, of our friend RC Sproul Jr.?

 For us her passing will never be just a news report, a cut-out for the scrapbook. No, rather, something has happened here. Sometimes we crane our necks to stare. Nothing has happened, move along, move along. But with Denise, something has happened. Something mighty has occurred and we can all feel it. The earth has been shaken but it is difficult to describe exactly how we know.

 We do know, we will forever remember, that Denise was a kind and lovely spirit. We saw in her an empathy and a certain goodness made manifest with every motion. They seemed natural to her, although these perfections are only supernatural evidences of God’s strengthening graces. We do not thank her for being naturally good but we do give thanks for her sliding up a sash that we might view some unshadowed measure of the celestial ideals. I have tried to recall any example of a Biblical hero that demonstrated with precision these beautiful attributes but have found myself mentally flailing through the text without reward. It seems there are some few obediences we are commanded to obtain finding our surest expressions among the living. So, it was that in the living we were inspired and at the dying we have more fully appreciated what we had among us.

 And, beauty does have this ephemeral quality. We look, we see, and forget, and so review whom God has placed among us that we may learn to see how He may increase in us these same virtues. In the case of death sometimes, beauty and tragedy bear each other along. So it is that our spirits soar and plummet even as we admit the truth of every Scripture that fills our souls with hope. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither height nor depth nor any other thing. So, to a beloved sister we say goodbye and swear to join you when our Jesus sets us free with you.

 Don Schanzenbach 12-19-11