Daisy’s earthly life, from beginning to end, was a trail of fascinating experiences. Born in Belgium, moving to the United States, returning to live in war-torn Europe, encountering the baptism in the Holy Spirit, Bible School, marriage, children, appointment as Assemblies of God missionaries to Alaska, finding MCA Church, and smuggling Bibles (the list goes on and on) are so intriguing that they could fill a feature film.
When I was seventeen years old I heard a leadership teaching that included a definition of success, “Find a need and fill it.” Daisy would be “Exhibit A.” She helped the poor and the rich, academic and illiterate, atheist and theologian, popular and unknown, and she helped them all in the name of Jesus.
“I love you” are three extremely powerful words that are almost meaningless without four equally powerful words; “May I help you?” Our culture attempts to separate love from service. Daisy understood, she deeply got it, that 1 Corinthians 13 doesn’t say “and the greatest of these is love,” but that the greatest is a God kind of love filled with sacrificial service. If our culture wants to define love and charity as two different things, then Daisy’s life shouts to us, “And the greatest of these is charity.”
It seems to me that last Sunday, after a long life of finding needs and filling them, Daisy arrived at Heaven’s airport and was in great awe at all the sights when, suddenly, behind her she heard the voice of Jesus Himself say, “Hi Daisy. May I help you?”