Shining the Light: A Tribute to Karen Steiner

Famous crooners from years past, like Nat King Cole, have sung about her. Tourists have traveled from around the world to look at her; copies of her face have adorned walls all over the world. If you guessed the "Mona Lisa" you would be right. I wonder how awed the artist, Leonardo da Vinci would have been if he knew that this painting of his would become known to millions.

When I was 24 I traveled to Paris and one of the first places I wanted to visit was the Louvre museum where the Mona Lisa was exhibited. When I found it I was dumbfounded. It was so much smaller than I thought it would be. A small crowd was gathered around it and as I stood at the edge I began to study it. It is said that wherever you stand she looks like she is looking directly at you. That's true. I walked to the left and she was staring at me. I moved over to the far right and she was still staring at me.. No matter where I walked she was still looking at me. There is a joke that suggests her eyes move, and that day I would have believed it.

What intrigued me even more though was her smile. It looked gentle, and sincere, but yet there seemed to be a mystery about it.

I'm not so impressed with famous smiles or famous paintings anymore. I much prefer the artistic glow of real people. I've met so many over the years from the gentle smiles of my husband, Ned, to the joyful grins of our children and grandchildren. One woman who has a smile I will never forget is Karen Steiner, a wife and mother who battled cancer for over two years and just went home to be with Jesus. So many of her friends, like my pal, Joyce, describe the incredible pain and suffering she went through. She and her husband Doug had one birth child, had taken in fifty foster children and had adopted four. One of their sons was killed tragically. Two more sons with special needs were living at home. Karen worked hard to help them and her husband Doug, and didn't dwell on the disease that was slowly taking her life.

Her visit on our radio show, "Woman to Woman," was her last public appearance. When I met her her eyes were sparkling, her smile was kind and gentle, and she laughed often. She wore a canvas hat to cover her thin hair but her joy just bubbled up in her quiet laugh. I also breathed in the peace that flowed from her. The difference between her and the Mona Lisa? Her joy of Jesus Christ that was alive and filling the room.

Perhaps the woman who posed for the "Mona Lisa" loved the Lord, too. I don't know. But when God lets you experience His love in the face of a living human being, who has suffered so much, and yet shines like a jewel, you know you have touched His feet. In I John 2:7 it says: "Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment, for it is an old one you have always had, right from the beginning...to love one another."

Karen did that with her family, her friends, herself. Her portrait may not hang in a famous museum, but her face is much more famous. Because of the love God poured out through her in the middle of all her suffering, her face will be imprinted forever on the walls of all our hearts. She is truly a masterpiece.

I love ya,

Kathy

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Kathy Thomas is the director of Woman to Woman Ministries of Tucson, dedicated to the encouragement and healing of women, which airs a weekly radio program on KGMS 940 AM every Sat. at 2 pm. and on cable television Wed. at 3 p.m. on channels 72 and 97 and Fri.at 5 p.m. on channels 73 and 98. email Kathy at hooperandhonker@msn.com.

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