Crahen Children Care & Education

Our beloved Joy Crahen went to be with the Lord Saturday morning, January 4. Patrick tenderly brought each of the children to her bedside one by one. Ivy, Judah, and Clara kissed their dear mother good-bye, told her they loved her, and that it was okay for her to go now to Heaven ... they would surely join her one day.

Their precious faces were all full of light and smiles as they left her room. They had so much assurance of the care and love of their Heavenly Father that they had not a care for themselves. They cozied up in the loving arms of friends and family gathered around the crackling fire for a brief moment - with a cup of hot chocolate and a danish - still smiles and bright eyes at the love enveloping them all around.

Yet before anyone could catch them for too long or in too many unnecessary conversations, their eyes were all captured by the scene outside the picture window of their family room. The brilliant sun was now sparkling fully but just over the horizon as it does only on the bluest of clear winter days. The light played through the glistening woodland outside the window, and then stray little beams began to filter through the trees and come in the window to play across their faces. The children's eyes were all alight. They hastily pulled on jackets and boots over their pajamas and raced happily outdoors to enjoy the delights of woodland play in the radiant new day.

The children's faith, their joy, and their unshakeable confidence in the care of their Heavenly Father are a testament to their mother's love and her steadfast instruction both in the things of earth and the things of Heaven. She taught them to fully delight in the richest beauty of the earth, for it is a good and true gift from their Father in Heaven. And yet that it is only a picture of a goodness, a truth, and a beauty that are far richer and fuller. Their hope is not in the ethereal sparkling dawn of a winter's day - however magical - but in a person, their Lord Jesus Christ. Joy wanted them to know Him as she did. It was her zeal for Him that filled her and her children to overflowing with hope and joy even in the most difficult recent days.

Ivy, Judah, and Clara are a beautiful legacy that Joy has given to the world, even as she departed. By grace the Lord will provide for them day by day. Joy poured out her life for them, her husband, her family, and her friends. May the Lord bless her legacy in them, and may they in their lifetimes on earth show many others - "this way to life!"