Hilary Lister.  Have you heard of her?  Probably not.  I was made aware of her when I read her obituary the other day.  She died rather young, at age 46.  According to the obituary, she had for years suffered from an extremely debilitating disease that left her a quadriplegic.

     But she loved the ocean.  Operating a boat by blowing or drawing through tubes hooked to various electronics that controlled it, she sailed widely crossing the English Channel and, eventually, circum-navigating England.  Her spirit was indomitable.

     How tragic, then, that she died so young.  Nonetheless, Lister lived her life to the absolute fullest.  And in this, however we regard the nature of existence or the reality of an afterlife, we can take encouragement and heart:  we are made to be who we are.
     In a world created by a loving and purposeful God, this truth seems to be, in a singularly profound way, the only one on which we can base our lives.
     We are made to live out, in the richest and deepest way, our creation in the image of God.