In the Hand of God |
In the Hand of God |
Since he is part of the reason for starting this, it is only appropriate that the one thing I wrote for him be here........ Several years ago he asked me to come back to his bedroom so we could talk. Anybody in our family could tell you that this wasn’t unusual, he always did that with somebody almost every time you were there. This time it was different. He asked me to promise him that I would write and read the eulogy for his funeral. I tried to make excuses and he was frustrated with me. I tried to convince him that he needed to have a preacher at his funeral, but he insisted that he didn’t want a preacher to stand over him and tell about what a good man he had been. He wanted someone who knew him best and who would tell the truth. I could see that he was serious and that he really truly wanted me to promise to do this for him, so I asked him what it was he wanted me to say. He said that he wanted me to tell you that he was contrary, sometimes hateful, hard to get along with, that he was a hard worker, a good provider, that he loved his family, and that he loved the Lord. He also told me that he wanted me to read from Job 14 because it had been read at both his father and grandfather’s funerals. So today I stand before you in honor of my grandfather to tell you that he was a little contrary sometimes and a little hard to get along with on occasion.. He was indeed a hard worker and a good provider. He truly loved his family and he loved the Lord. He was those things, but he was more. He was a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather. He was a friend, a co-worker, a deacon, and a neighbor. Most importantly, he was a Christian. I was the oldest grandchild, and he often would tell me the story of when I was born. He often told me that he remembered standing at the window of the nursery at the hospital and praying that God would bless me. God honored that request and has blessed me beyond measure, but I think that Pappaw never understood that God had already blessed me before he ever prayed that prayer….God had already blessed me by allowing me to be born into this family and to have him as my grandfather. When I was little, I remember coming into my grandparents’ house and as soon as you entered the door you would see the coffee table….covered with an open Bible, commentary, Sunday School quarterly, and him getting ready for teaching his Sunday School class. I remember him sitting in the “Amen Corner” on Sunday mornings during preaching and hearing his occasional amen. He had been raised in a Christian home, but wasn’t saved until after he was a father. I grew up hearing how he and my grandmother were baptized at the same time, literally at the same time arm in arm. He later was ordained as a deacon and when I was little he was the Chairman of the Deacons. He knew his Bible like the back of his hand and could tell you off the top of his head where verses were located. As he grew older, he told me that one of the things that bothered him most was that he feared he could no longer bring verses to his recollection like he once could. He was blessed to never get to that point but even if he had, they were still written on his heart. I loved to hear him pray. He always said that he didn’t have a way with words because he didn’t have much education, but I will tell you that he knew how to talk to God. He would humbly thank God for the privilege to call upon Him, and would name those he wished to pray for, always including those in the military “in harm’s way”. He spent most of his life talking to God and knew how to speak from his heart. Sometimes the prayers were beautiful and the words would flow gracefully from his lips. Sometimes the prayers were harder as he found himself in places where he found it more difficult to pray. He was blessed with many friends. As the proverb says, “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” He had a way of drawing people to him. He would talk to anyone and usually found something in common with them all. We were blessed this week to hear stories from friends, family, and neighbors, about what he meant to each of them. When you are grieving the loss of your grandfather, it helps so much to hear things like, “he meant the world to me”, “he always wanted everything to be done right, it had to be perfect”, “he taught me all kinds of things”, and “he was one of a kind”. A neighbor who was dear to him told us a story about how he needed advice and went to Pappaw because his own family was gone. He said, “I asked Jim what to do, he told me, and it fixed it.” That was my grandfather. He absolutely loved to give his advice….whether you asked for it or not. Most of the time, if you listened, he was right. I watched him lose first his son, and then his daughter. He would go to the book of Job because he could draw strength from it. He could identify with Job. And so maybe he wanted Job 14 to be read today because it had been read at his father’s funeral or maybe it was because in part because it was his favorite book. Job 14:1-6 reads: 1Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. 2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. 3And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? 4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. 5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; 6Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day. One of the things that Pappaw had learned was that life was a few days and full of rrouble. Serving God did not promise a life without hardship and heartache. He had suffered the loss of both his parents. In 1987 he lost his son and then in 2003 his daughter. Just as Job had lost his children, he mourned the loss and although he could not understand why God had chosen such a path for him, he continued on it. He knew as he himself grew older, that his time on earth was limited. He no longer could do the things he once did. He knew that God Himself knew the day he would leave and he felt it drawing nearer. He told me one evening at his house after a visit to the hospital that he was leaving and that he had an appointment in Heaven. He wanted to go home. I was blessed to be there when he left. I had asked God to let me know when it was time because I wanted to be there to send him off. I woke up just a few minutes before it was time for him to leave, and I was able to kiss him, tell him I’d see him later, and to tell him that it was okay for him to go. Job 14:7-15 reads: For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; 9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. 10But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? 11As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: 12So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. 13O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! 14If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.15Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. Unlike a tree that has hope of regenerating even after being cut down, once a man dies, his life on earth is over. But it isn’t the end. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 says “13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Today we mourn the loss of a great man, but he wouldn’t want us to be sad. He would want us to be jealous. We are sad because we selfishly want to keep him here with us, but he wouldn’t come back if he could, because he is where he spent his life waiting to go. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Here we are, crying and sad because we didn’t want to lose him. If he could talk to us right now, he would tell us not to be sad. He has seen the beauty of Heaven. He woke up and found himself surrounded by beauty we cannot find words to describe. By now he’s found his dad, mom, brothers, and sisters. I’m sure Porkey and Susie were waiting when he walked in, so they could show him around. He’s probably talked to everyone he saw and as we say our earthly goodbyes, he is at the feet of Jesus. God has called and He answered. Now he is Home. The last verses of Job 14 read as follows: 16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin? 17My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity. 18And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.19The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man. 20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.21His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low but he perceiveth it not of them.22But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn. Life brings suffering. Even a child of God is not immune to the heartaches this life brings to each of us. As Pappaw grew older he suffered with illnesses, aches, and pains. Things that once came easy to him, became difficult. It was hard for him to go from being independent and strong to being dependent and somewhat weaker. He found himself relying more and more on those around him for help. But today that is no longer the case. He doesn’t have a deformed heart. He doesn’t have to check his sugar anymore because there is no diabetes in Heaven. There will never be another day when he feels weak. He will no longer forget what it was he wanted to say. He has been healed from all the things that bothered him here on earth. Revelation 21:4 tells us that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. There is a Hebrew proverb that says, “Say not in grief, ‘he is no more’, but live in thankfulness that he was.” So today rather than concentrate on his being gone, my prayer is that we can remember how blessed we were to have him in our lives. As much as we are hurting right now and as much as we wanted him to stay, we are above all, blessed. We had the opportunity to have this man in our lives. If nothing else, he made us laugh. It’s so hard to cry when everyone is sitting around sharing stories about him. The stories make us laugh and remind us just how great this man really was. My kids loved to go to his house when he got a call from a telemarketer. Everyone’s favorite telemarketer story has to be the day the lady called about the replacement windows. Pappaw told her he didn’t think he could use them because he lived in a tent. He went on to tell the lady he had a leak in his tent and if she could tell him how he could use one of those replacement windows to fix that leak, then he would be interested in buying one. She told him she would check on it and hung up. We were all at the table eating and a few minutes later, the phone rang again. He leaned back in his chair and reached behind his head to answer it. It was the telemarketer lady. She told him she was sorry, but she had checked with everyone in the office and no one knew how to make it work. He told her thank you and then got off the phone laughing. We could sit here all night listening to the stories each individual would share. I wish we could. I would love to hear each and every one of your stories about him. And we would love to share our own stories….stories of him hurrying outside to shoot at birds without his suspenders. When Mammaw came to the door to tell him he had a call, she saw him go to shoot up in the trees only to have his pants fall around his ankles. Stories of the time he killed a cat, only to find it looking at him when he went to the barn a few days later. He just knew that cat had come back to haunt him. There are so many stories that make us smile, but perhaps the best illustration of him would be the story of his swimming lesson. Pappaw’s neighbor has a pool and her little boy, Jake, offered to teach Pappaw to swim. So one day Pappaw, who could swim like a fish, put on his swim trunks, and headed over to the neighbor’s for his swimming lesson. Jake worked and worked teaching Pappaw to swim, even having to rescue him from near drowning a couple of times. Finally Jake taught Pappaw how swim and Pappaw paid him $10 for his swimming lesson. That was my grandfather. My grandfather asked me to tell you who he really was….what he was really like. He was strong and devoted. He was a family man, a friend, a neighbor, and a servant of God. He meant something different to each of us….each of us has suffered a different kind of loss. I will tell you that there is no one on the face of this planet who has ever loved me like my Pappaw did. There is no one else who has ever had the kind of faith in me that he had. Wednesday morning I lost my biggest fan. My grandfather was many things, but above all I am thankful most for the fact that he was a Christian. If Pappaw could talk to you right now, he would tell you about God. He would tell you that life iis hard. He would tell you that life brings pain, heartache, and suffering. He would tell you that God had blessed him beyond measure. His relationship with God was personal. He was a man of faith. If he were here right now, he would ask you if you were saved and if you weren’t he would introduce you to his Jesus. If you ever have wondered if God was real, I can personally assure you that He is. The God Who created the Universe, Who hung every star in place, heard the prayer of my grandfather and granted him his request to go to Heaven rather than to stay here and suffer. My grandfather was there when I entered the world, and God allowed me to be there when it was time for him to leave it. I cannot find the words to describe what that was like. I literally felt him leave, not just die, but leave. God brought comfort to Chris through a dream. Just as Chris and I were in the car after leaving the hospital after Pappaw passed away, Chris told me that he was having a dream that Pappaw was better when my mom woke him up to tell him that Pappaw was gone. I told him that at the time he had the dream, that Pappaw was better. He was in Heaven. God brought him comfort. Our greatest comfort is that we are not saying goodbye….we are simply saying, “See you later.” On this Good Friday I am thankful for Easter and the fact that our Savior was crucified and rose again. Because of that and because years ago my grandfather accepted Christ, I have the promise of one day seeing him again. For that I am most thankful.
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