Just feet away from her sister Maria's tiny white coffin, Shaohannah Chapman stood with her parents and listened as her daddy read a letter she wrote.
"I will see you soon, but not too soon. I hear the roads are made of solid gold and God waits for everyone. When you see that I'm coming, wait for me at the gate," he continued as Maria's pictures — smiling in huge sunglasses or sitting next to her birthday cake — flashed on two screens behind him.
Boy's plight remembered
The Saturday service, sometimes pierced by spontaneous laughter from the pews caused by funny Maria stories, also served as a reminder that another life, that of the teenage boy who drove the truck, has been shattered.
"I haven't always been a good brother," one of the Chapman boys said. "Just like my dad helped Maria, I hope I help my brother. … (God) healed Maria in a way we don't like, but he's going to heal (my brother) in a way we're going to like."
And then Chapman recalled how he tried to fight for his little girl in the hospital, how he told the doctors he needed to pray, he needed to save her.
"That's what you do as a dad," he said, his voice breaking up. And how he asked God for a sign to know that his daughter was OK, and the frustration when it didn't come. Not right away, he said. And then he found a card Maria painted but never finished. When he turned it around, it read "see."
"I heard her little voice and the voice of God," he said. "She said: 'See, dad, it's OK.' "
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Today, something reminded me of how 'practical' I am when it comes to You. How I cry out for Your presence, but take it for granted when You have so graciously given it to me.
"I could search for all eternity Lord, and find, there is none like You."
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