This morning I woke up a little after 3am with a dear friend of many years on my
mind and immediately I began praying for her and her family. Tim and Tammy DeGraff
were my next-door neighbors for almost 20 years in Blue Ridge Virginia. Tim and
Tammy were the best neighbors ever. As soon as it started snowing, even if it
was in the middle of the night, Tim would be on his four-wheeler cleaning off
my driveway! Tammy was a pharmacist who worked
for umpteen years at the local hospital. She made sure all my health needs were
being properly taken care of. She would bring me the needed medications if we
were too ill to go and get them. She often gave us, and all of our missionaries
advise on what medicines we should take when we were overseas.
Tammy has been battling cancer for the past several years. This morning, right around
5am, I received a text from Tim informing me that Tammy had gone home to be
with her Lord. I thought it was so fitting that the Lord would choose to take
Tammy home to His house on a Sunday, the Lord’s Day, Resurrection Day!
Tammy was not only a special friend and neighbor, but she was also our head greeter
and hospitality leader at Rainbow for so many years I can hardly remember when she
wasn’t. She had the biggest smile and made everyone feel so special when they came
into the church facility. Tammy organized and trained all the greeters and made
sure everyone was in place every Sunday. She loved the Lord and loved His
people too!
As I was texting back and forth with Tim this morning shortly after she went to be
with the Lord, I began thinking about Tammy’s entrance into heaven. 2 Peter 1:10-11
(NLT) says, “So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you
really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will
never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal
Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Tammy’s life in every way proved that she was indeed one of God’s special “called
and chosen” people! I’m sure the Lord gave her a “grand entrance into
His eternal Kingdom” with a warm greeting “Well done, my good and
faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord!” (Matthew 25:23). I also
imagined that Sid Barker, Clarence Leonard, Betty Fernett, Jack Sutliff, George
Young, Jerry Adams, Mike Dishon, and many many others that she had greeted every
Sunday into the house of the Lord, were there at heaven’s gate to greet and
welcome her saying, “Welcome to the Lord’s eternal house where we will worship
Him forever.”
Tammy’s entrance into heaven this morning was indeed a “grand one”. But we will miss
her greatly down here. Please be in prayer for Tim and all her family and
friends!
It is so interesting also that the verses in Psalm 73 speak to this same theme. When
Asaph looked around at the prosperity of the wicked and unrighteous people, he
felt like he was trying to live for the Lord in vain. But when he “went into
the sanctuary to worship”, he got a totally different perspective! He saw the end of the wicked and it was not good
at all. They were on the slippery slope
of eternal destruction and in the end will be consumed with terrors.
But the person who obeys and trusts the Lord, and lives for Him has a wonderful
future. Asaph goes on to say in Psalm 73:23-24, “Nevertheless I am
continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your
counsel, And afterward receive me to glory.”
Today, Tammy has been received into the glorious presence of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!
Are you prepared for that day?
God bless!
