I can’t shake it. I feel tethered to their resilience the way young trees are fastened to support sticks. As breezes and gusts come up around me, I find myself steadied by Britt and Kate Merrick’s
tremendous example, and I’m determined to learn everything I can from how they have carried the cross of childhood cancer and turned it into glory to the One who did not leave nor forsake them.
Daisy’s memorial service was held in my hometown on Saturday with more than 6,000 people in attendance online and in person. I watched in astonishment as the Merrick & Reality family used
every. single. moment. to show the watching world that Jesus is trustworthy, and that in him we can confidently and courageously embrace the gifts of living, dying, and living again with deep gratitude and big, vibrant hope.
It was unquestionably one of the most {pick an adjective} astonishing, honest, remarkable, moving, joyful, important, generous, worshipful, God-honoring things I have ever, ever witnessed.
It marked me profoundly.
I beg of you to make some time this weekend to watch the memorial video, especially the parts in the middle where Kate speaks, and most definitely at the very end when Britt shares so securely, so
generously, and so very intimately of Daisy’s final weeks on Earth. You will laugh, cry, and exhale deeply with a fresh and lasting perspective on where—and to whom—your life should be anchored.
I am so thankful for what this family has taught me about bearing hard things well. Watching them enjoy Jesus being with them instead of demanding to know, “Why?” from him, has prepared me
for whatever dark roads he may have ordained for me up ahead. Daisy, Kate, Britt, and Isaiah have proven to us all that when we are handed a weighty and cumbersome cross, we do not have to, as Charles Spurgeon says, “kick at it in petulance, or trample it in pride, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear.” Instead, we can know that our cross has been appointed for us
by divine love; we can cheerfully accept and steward it so that others will come to know the source of the light and love we are also privileged to carry.
Big God by Britt Merrick
Godspeed by Britt Merrick (our Advance Church community group will be reading this together beginning next week. Sign up at church on Sunday to join us.)