The One Left Behind

By Michael Morris

Charmaine, Mikes wife of forty-three years, lived with cancer for nearly eight years until two years ago. Then Jesus came back for her as he had promised. He took her to be where he is in his Fathers house where he had prepared a home for her. He lifted her up on eagles wings and took her to himself. The cancer is now dead, but Charmaine lives.

This is Mike and Charmaines story. It is a story of hope from the one left behinda role that one day so many of us will be called upon to fill.

It tells of Gods goodness and how he is even gooder than we thinkall the time. This they discovered through their circumstances, not despite them.

Mike has personally known Jesus as Lord in his life for over twenty years and Lord of his life in more recent years. For longer than that, he has travelled the world in sales and manufacturing roles, having lived and worked extensively in China, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and Israel.

He has a daughter living in Canada with her husband and four children whom he visits two to three times per year. Originally from Manchester, Mike returned to live there recently after a fifty-year absence to be close to his brother, his wife, and two nieces.

Mike is still working, building a business consulting to manufacturers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512789263

Michael Morris

A fifth-generation native of Perry, Florida, a rural area near Tallahassee, Michael Morris knows southern culture and characters. It is the foundation and inspiration for the stories and novels he writes. Upon graduating from Auburn University, Michael worked for U.S. Senator Bob Graham and then became a sales representative for pharmaceutical companies. As a sales representative, Michael decided to follow a life-long desire and began writing in the evenings. The screenplay he penned during this time is still someplace in the bottom of a desk drawer. It is when Michael accepted a position in government affairs and moved to North Carolina that he began to take writing more seriously. While studying under author Tim McLaurin, Michael started writing the story that would eventually become his first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass. The novel was released in April, 2002 and is currently in its third printing. A Place Called Wiregrass was named a Booksense 76 selection by members of the American Independent Booksellers Association as and is part of the southern literature curriculum at two universities. Michael's latest novel, Slow Way Home, will be released by Harper Collins on September 23 and his work can be seen in the southern anthology Stories From The Blue Moon Café II. Michael and his wife, Melanie, reside in Fairhope, Alabama.

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Copyright © 2017 Michael Morris.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-8925-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8926-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017908501

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/18/2017

Contents

Foreword

Part 1:   The One Left Behind

Again a Bride

Walking in Faith, Living in Hope

He Heals All Our Diseases

Defeated at the Cross

God’s Infinite Capacity for Suffering

God’s Love as Strong as Death

No Plan B

As It Is in Heaven

No What Ifs

On Eagles’ Wings

A Door of Hope

We the betrothed ones

God Works All Things for the Good

Part 2:   The One Who Went Ahead

Why Wasn’t I There?

At Rest in His Love

Let Her Go Now; She’s Mine

But Where Is She Now? God Is Not in Heaven

Part 3:   And Now?

Why!

From Glory to Glory

Either None of It’s True or All of It

A Death That Will Glorify God

Breathe on Me, Breath of God

Part 4:   And So …

Even Gooder Than We Think

Life and Life to the Full

As it is in Heaven

Part 5:   The Way We Were

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Bible References

Foreword

My wife of forty-three years was more than enough, the love of my life, and my only real friend. She went on ahead, and now I’m the one left behind.

Charmaine had just been moved onto the home-care hospital bed. It was delivered that evening, and I’d left her to take some rest after several sleepless nights. The bed was empty when I came back downstairs in the early hours. When I returned from having looked for her in the kitchen, I saw her lying instead beside the bed. She had rested her head on her right arm. It was as though she’d made herself comfortable, thinking, I’ll just wait for Mike to come back. My love’s left arm offered no resistance beyond its own weight as I reached over and lifted