Love Like Sue Dean

 Take a walk with me back to my childhood church in California.  A fiery preacher is running back and forth preaching his heart out. Glance to the side pew and there you see his wife, Sue Dean preaching along with him in her own way with a smile on her face. She was Aunt Sue to me. She was my church Aunt. She was the one who prayed many prayers with and over me. As I always saw her do, she supported her husband, Reverend Eckard Dean when he started a church in Globe, Arizona. Over the years they would visit and she would check on me to see how I was doing. I remember in my younger years when my walk with God was being developed, she told me to stay close to God. To know His voice.  When I was in High School and she knew  God had placed a love in my heart for missions, she encouraged me to follow that path. When all my friends were getting married and having children, she encouraged me to continue on with my college education and use it as a tool to get me into the missions field. I remember her telling me it was best to be self supporting, so I could do what I was really going overseas to do.  When my many crushes never became anything more than friendships, she would remind me, to never forget my first love. Who was my first love? My first love was the church. My first love was missions. My first love was giving my all to serving others. Aunt Sue had a way of looking past everything and right to my heart.  She told me I didn't need to be married to do great things for God. That I could give my best as a single. When I went to missions field to Taiwan, she rejoiced. When I returned and got married, she rejoiced. Over a year ago when she was visiting our home church in California the same time I was, we wept in each others arms. She was dealing with cancer and my marriage had been ripped to shreds. I felt so lost, my whole world was spinning out of control. She pulled me close and whispered in my ear, remember your first love. Go back to your first love. That day my world settled right again.  Yesterday as I was going through my things, I came across a vase and two cups that had been made as a gift from a potter in Taiwan. I heard her whisper once again in my ear, "Julia, remember your first love".  I wept.  Even in her time of pain and trying to understand what was happening to her, she still had her mind on souls. This was her heartbeat. Her heartbeat was sharing the love and gospel of Jesus Christ with others. She loved the ministry. She loved her family. She loved her God. She loved people. Whatever she was to you, Sue Dean spoke words of wisdom into your life. May we remember them and apply them. May we love like she loved. May we share the love of Christ like she loved. May we walk in faith and trust in God even when life screams you should not. May we love like Aunt Sue.