Significance and finishing well

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Today is Friday, April 3rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. You may remember a story back in February: we introduced you to a couple who were preparing to celebrate their last Valentine’s Day together.

Today, Kim Henderson has an update.

KIM HENDERSON, REPORTER: Last August, we got some bad news about our daughter’s car. The transmission needed to be replaced. 

Our longtime mechanic, Lyn Hutcherson, wiped his hands and told us he could get on it in a couple of days. First, though, he had to go to a doctor’s appointment.

“Just the routine kind,” he assured us, knowing full well nothing is routine for cancer patients in quasi-remission. It turns out, he got some bad news of his own. News that makes a faulty transmission seem like the most insignificant thing in the world.  

For the last 8 months I’ve watched as Lyn and his wife, June, let go of what becomes insignificant in the face of cancer. A career, hobbies, busy-ness. I never once heard him complain. 

HUTCHERSON: The cancer is a gift. It’s given me a whole new group of people to meet.

He’s talking about people he met at doctor visits, and during rounds of chemo and radiation.

HUTCHERSON: It’s given me a chance to visit with them, to witness to them, to tell them that God loves them. You know what, where’s the in here at very, very worst is temporary. We can’t get too bad here that He’s not going to make it better later, if we want him to. 

When Lyn realized he had just a few months to live, his time in God’s word took on new importance. 

HUTCHERSON: Isaiah chapter 55 says, “For the Bible is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it divides the heart and soul.” That book is alive, it’s active and it’s growing me every day. Because my life is wrapping up right now doesn’t mean that I’m not going to stop growing. 

It’s been 7 weeks since I interviewed the Hutchersons. June kept her promise to make sure this chapter of their life together closed gently. She’s been with him 24/7, trying to get him to eat. Sitting beside the special bed hospice delivered. Staying up with him through the night. 

Early Wednesday morning, April 1st, June texted us to say Lyn died at 5:37 a.m.

People long for their lives to have some sort of significance. Watching Lyn and June these past months, I realized sometimes the most significant thing we can do is finish well.  

HUTCHERSON: I’m unafraid, I’m unconcerned. I’m perfectly at peace with this… it’s going to be OK. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson.

(Photo/Lyn and June Hutcherson)

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