RON'S WRITINGS
TRIBUTE TO MYRTLE STADEM-SVANOE, RUSSELL SCHAEFER, AND PAUL RANGEN
Tribute to Myrtle
Stadem-Svanoe,
Russell Schaefer, and Paul Rangen, Who
Have Gone Home
in a
Threesome to the Lord
I see them open in the night,
just as dawn breaks on my
sight.
One by one, I count now
three--
gorgeous blooms of rare
beauty!
What flowers shine so like the
stars?
I see them through these dark cell
bars!
Each shines with Christ's own purest
white--
long-promised to the saints who
fight
for Righteousness like Daniel
when
he stood for God 'gainst evil
men.
Each bears a message--can we
hear?
"I bore my children, totalled
eight!
I led them all toward Christ's own
gate.
Mother love, and prayers not
few,
will bring them, surely, to my
view!
I fought for them, as long I
could.
Tear and finger-marked, this
Wood
the cross I bore and could not
shun
not until each daughter, son,
trod straight the path to heaven's
gate,
refusing lures and devil's
bait!"
Berean-like, he held the
Book,
no casual grasp, so light
forsook
for worldly cares or worldly
good--
this scholar-priest, God's Levite,
stood
all his life for Jesus
Christ,
the only truth that's
all-sufficed
and full, complete, to make a
soul
a child of God, not part, but
whole.
"'Complete in Him,' was my
refrain,
I've preached life-long as this life's
gain.
'Complete in Him,' all less now
stands
beside the Cross, Christ's Work, like
sands!
Joy and triumph are His gift,
all other things like dust heaps
drift.
My wife, my son, they have one
aim,
they're praising only the Lord's
Name!"
The third was young, his span cut
short,
a race 'gainst time across the
court!
He finished, though, his last ball
thrown--
a life that was full-orbed, Christ-grown.
See, the winning score upon the
board?
It says, "Well done, for Christ the
Lord."
***********
The image of three lilies I began with in the tribute were provided by a card sent to me by Aunt Be, Bernice Stadem-Schaefer. Now imagine three butterflies--for these loved ones are surely spreading their bright praises to the Lord like butterfly wings in heaven! There is no way we can do their earthly lives justice here. The poem-portraits, or cameos, are intended only to convey a TASTE of each to you. If you "tasted" Myrtle Stadem-Svanoe, you might well have tasted sweetest love mixed with urgent, intercessory faith and love of Jesus. If you "tasted" Russell Schaefer, you might well have tasted the completeness we have in Christ Jesus as born-again disciples of Him, as well as his adventurous, explorer's spirit, as well as his quiet, Berean-type scholarliness. If you "tasted" Paul Rangen, you might well have tasted his warm, convivial Norwegian Lutheran heritage and informal, American zest for life.
Now there is something more: his letter to Friends and Loved Ones, April 8, 2000, with subject: "Thank God Almighty...I'm home at last" in which he describes a wonderful touch from God (using his radio station where he worked!) that revived his hope when he was
lying alone in his room in the hospital with a painful lung disease--and seemingly no way out. This letter was written and sent out four months before Cousin Paul's Homegoing to Heaven. Please link to it below.--R.G.
Links to other sites
on the
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"RON'S WRITINGS CENTRAL"
Tribute to Bernice
Paul Rangen's Letter
New Main Linking Central
The Linking Page for Road Maps
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