In Memoriam

Jimmy Tanovan

Today I learned of the passing of a good friend of mine. He was a young man with many talents, a generous heart, and love for God, people and life in general.  I had just started to get to know him better recently and while I've always appreciated his kindness, the way he treated my kids like they were his cousins, and how he was willing to help at the drop of a hat, I don't think I ever expressed my appreciation quite enough.

I always thanked him for his help, and we did a lot together—usually over dinner or lunch—but I don't know if he ever knew how much he meant in my life.  In fact, I didn't realize how much he meant to me until I found out this morning, when my wife called me in tears to tell me, "Jimmy died."

Jimmy was a friend to so many, yet he made you feel like you were his best friend.  He loved to connect on common interests, and he blessed me and my family by opening up to us and allowing us to be close to him.

His passing was sudden.  Many of us in church had just spoken with him hours before his passing.  I still can't believe he's gone and I know it will take time to process this.  But I'm left with so many memories, some regrets, and most of all, the profound awareness of this truth:

The life of mortals is like grass,

they flourish like a flower of the field;

    the wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting

the LORD's love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children's children—

   with those who keep his covenant

and remember to obey his precepts.

(Psalm 130:15-18)

Jimmy's life will never be forgotten because the truth is, it isn't over.  It's just begun.  I know that in that day, when we meet again, it will all be like waking from a dream.  There, I'll see him, give him another big man-hug, and see all the people I love that have gone before me.  And it will be like C.S. Lewis' beautiful account of eternity as he wrote in the final page of The Chronicles of Narnia.

 

"You do not yet look so happy as I mean you

to be."

Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent

away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our

own world so often."

"No fear of that," said AsIan. "Have you not

guessed?"

Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose

within them.

"There was a real railway accident," said

Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of

you are-as you used to call it in the

Shadowlands-dead. The term is over: the holidays

have begun. The dream is ended: this is the

morning."

And as He spoke He no longer looked to

them like a lion; but the things that began to

happen after that were so great and beautiful

that I cannot write them. And for us this is the

end of all the stories, and we can most truly say

that they all lived happily ever after. But for

them it was only the beginning of the real story.

All their life in this world and all their adventures

in Narnia had only been the cover and the

title page: now at last they were beginning

Chapter One of the Great Story which no one

on earth has read: which goes on forever: in

which every chapter is better than the one

before.

From The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis