On October 24th, before the sun had even come up, my world changed forever. At around 5:30 am my beautiful mom left this world for her true Home. She would truly love the thought of blazing the trail for all of us to glory, and we can hardly wrap our minds around the fact that she is with Jesus! We are grateful that the strife and heartache of this world are a thing of the past for her and that all she will ever know for the rest of eternity is pure joy, but our hearts are broken and we miss her greatly. Our family will never be the same without her ways of bringing us all together and making each of us feel like we were the most special to her, but the Lord is good and he is already at work drawing us closer to each other and closer to himself.
I've never planned a funeral before and I discovered that it's a pretty huge task to accomplish in two days, especially when you have been surprised by such grief, but mom made it so easy for us. She wanted things to be simple with the most unadorned casket (she really wanted a pine box, preferably hand-crafted by an Amish man, but we didn't have quite the time for that : ). She wanted to be buried in her wedding dress to symbolize the two greatest loves of her life, her earthly family and her role in her heavenly family as the Bride of Christ. Instead of a huge spray of flowers, we draped her beautiful wedding veil over her casket with her worn and tattered Bible opened to Revelation 21:2 that says, "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." On her Bible we placed a single purple rose. She had many favorite hymns, but three of her favorites were Be Thou My Vision, It Is Well With My Soul and Amazing Grace. Her older grandchildren and sons and daughter-in-law read scriptures pertaining to God's children being his Bride, with her oldest grandson praising her as a true Proverbs 31 woman. The younger grandchildren played Amazing Grace on the tin whistle and sang the first two verses with great gusto. I'm not sure I've ever been to a funeral with six eulogies before, but Dad, Lisa, Ron, Jimmy, Blake and I all had things that we wanted say to honor her. John Salonek, a family friend and a man mom respected greatly, presented the gospel. We concluded her service by gathering around her with our entire extended family, joining hands and singing Thy Loving Kindness, just as our family did 36 years ago upon the death of dad's youngest brother. There were over 700 people there to honor her.
I know for certain that the words that were spoken of her were only true by God's grace in her life. I also know that the Lord has used those words and her example to work in the hearts of many people, myself included. So many women have told me that they want to leave a legacy for their families like mom has left for us. There is no way that mom would have ever guessed how far-reaching her example of a life well lived would stretch, and it is now our privilege to tell others of God's goodness and grace to our family.
Because I don't want to forget, I've written out the words that I spoke of mom during her funeral.
I am so grateful to see so many familiar faces here to celebrate my mom. She loved a good party, especially one that included all of her people. Mom and dad’s house has been bursting at the seams with all of our family and good friends over these past few days and my cousins Tobie, Tracie and I were saying that she would be really sad to miss out on all of this. But there is one place that she would rather be than here with us and that is casting her crown at the feet of Jesus. I have a feeling that even if we could give her the chance to come and join us here she would say, “No, thanks, I’m good!”
I bought this fun little necklace at a local craft fair for her upcoming 65th birthday. My plan was to have her grandchildren write little notes to her in the pages. She loved quirky things like this, especially when it involved personalized words from her favorite people. Since she no longer needs our words of encouragement, I decided instead to fill it with one-word descriptions of her from her friends and family. A few of the words that have been rightly used to describe her are: vibrant, classy, faithful, precious, prayer warrior, memory maker, biggest cheerleader and, of course, Pinterest Queen. It blesses me to see that she was known so well.
Anyone who knew mom for more than five minutes knew that she was also passionate (and if they only knew her on facebook they figured that out even more quickly!). That passion fueled her lively debates; religion and politics did not scare her off. She never claimed to know all of the right answers and said that she would be a student of the Bible for all of her days. As dad would say, she was “teachable” and willing to change her mind if she could see it in scripture.
But there was one thing that she knew for certain. She placed her confidence in the knowledge that she was a daughter of the King. I found a list in one of her many Bibles that she used to remind herself of the many things she knew to be true. Ephesians 1:3 told her that she had been specifically chosen by God. Romans 3:24 reminded her that she was justified before him. Ephesians 2:10 encouraged her to remember that she had been created for good works, and Colossians 2:10 calmed her and helped her rest in the knowledge that she was complete in Christ.
The single most important thing to my mom was that her children and grandchildren would know and believe in the saving grace of Jesus and that we would be as confident in those truths as she was. But that wasn’t just a vain hope for her. She quite literally devoted her life to pointing us to Jesus in a million different ways. For example, several years ago she mentioned to us that she had set aside a Bible for Lisa, Ron and myself and had committed to reading through each Bible and making personal notes to us in the margins as she read. The magnitude of the treasure this would be began to sink in for me when I found my Bible Thursday afternoon. Every time I open this Bible to fill my mind and heart with Truth, I can expect to also find words of wisdom and encouragement from my mom. In a quick glance through Proverbs last night I found these treasures:
Proverbs 14:1, “The wise woman builds her house” with the note that says, “Keep building!”.
Proverbs 15:26, “In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge.” Beside that verse she had written the names of all of her grandchildren.
Proverbs 17:14, “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.” She wrote, “Your dad is good at this.”
And finally there was even one of her famous reminders next to Proverbs 22:3, “The prudent sees evil and hides himself, but the naive go on and are punished for it.” She wrote, “Think ahead!”
Faithfulness to God from generation to generation was the greatest desire of her heart. She loved the Lord with all of her heart, mind, soul and strength and she devoted her life to learning to love the people around her, whomever they might be, personally and well. I long for heaven more today than I ever have before and I am confident that she will have the party in full swing for me when I am finally able to join her there. I am beyond grateful to know that she and I will spend eternity together in our favorite place; celebrating and casting our crowns at the feet of Jesus.
I've never planned a funeral before and I discovered that it's a pretty huge task to accomplish in two days, especially when you have been surprised by such grief, but mom made it so easy for us. She wanted things to be simple with the most unadorned casket (she really wanted a pine box, preferably hand-crafted by an Amish man, but we didn't have quite the time for that : ). She wanted to be buried in her wedding dress to symbolize the two greatest loves of her life, her earthly family and her role in her heavenly family as the Bride of Christ. Instead of a huge spray of flowers, we draped her beautiful wedding veil over her casket with her worn and tattered Bible opened to Revelation 21:2 that says, "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." On her Bible we placed a single purple rose. She had many favorite hymns, but three of her favorites were Be Thou My Vision, It Is Well With My Soul and Amazing Grace. Her older grandchildren and sons and daughter-in-law read scriptures pertaining to God's children being his Bride, with her oldest grandson praising her as a true Proverbs 31 woman. The younger grandchildren played Amazing Grace on the tin whistle and sang the first two verses with great gusto. I'm not sure I've ever been to a funeral with six eulogies before, but Dad, Lisa, Ron, Jimmy, Blake and I all had things that we wanted say to honor her. John Salonek, a family friend and a man mom respected greatly, presented the gospel. We concluded her service by gathering around her with our entire extended family, joining hands and singing Thy Loving Kindness, just as our family did 36 years ago upon the death of dad's youngest brother. There were over 700 people there to honor her.
I know for certain that the words that were spoken of her were only true by God's grace in her life. I also know that the Lord has used those words and her example to work in the hearts of many people, myself included. So many women have told me that they want to leave a legacy for their families like mom has left for us. There is no way that mom would have ever guessed how far-reaching her example of a life well lived would stretch, and it is now our privilege to tell others of God's goodness and grace to our family.
Because I don't want to forget, I've written out the words that I spoke of mom during her funeral.
I am so grateful to see so many familiar faces here to celebrate my mom. She loved a good party, especially one that included all of her people. Mom and dad’s house has been bursting at the seams with all of our family and good friends over these past few days and my cousins Tobie, Tracie and I were saying that she would be really sad to miss out on all of this. But there is one place that she would rather be than here with us and that is casting her crown at the feet of Jesus. I have a feeling that even if we could give her the chance to come and join us here she would say, “No, thanks, I’m good!”
I bought this fun little necklace at a local craft fair for her upcoming 65th birthday. My plan was to have her grandchildren write little notes to her in the pages. She loved quirky things like this, especially when it involved personalized words from her favorite people. Since she no longer needs our words of encouragement, I decided instead to fill it with one-word descriptions of her from her friends and family. A few of the words that have been rightly used to describe her are: vibrant, classy, faithful, precious, prayer warrior, memory maker, biggest cheerleader and, of course, Pinterest Queen. It blesses me to see that she was known so well.
Anyone who knew mom for more than five minutes knew that she was also passionate (and if they only knew her on facebook they figured that out even more quickly!). That passion fueled her lively debates; religion and politics did not scare her off. She never claimed to know all of the right answers and said that she would be a student of the Bible for all of her days. As dad would say, she was “teachable” and willing to change her mind if she could see it in scripture.
But there was one thing that she knew for certain. She placed her confidence in the knowledge that she was a daughter of the King. I found a list in one of her many Bibles that she used to remind herself of the many things she knew to be true. Ephesians 1:3 told her that she had been specifically chosen by God. Romans 3:24 reminded her that she was justified before him. Ephesians 2:10 encouraged her to remember that she had been created for good works, and Colossians 2:10 calmed her and helped her rest in the knowledge that she was complete in Christ.
The single most important thing to my mom was that her children and grandchildren would know and believe in the saving grace of Jesus and that we would be as confident in those truths as she was. But that wasn’t just a vain hope for her. She quite literally devoted her life to pointing us to Jesus in a million different ways. For example, several years ago she mentioned to us that she had set aside a Bible for Lisa, Ron and myself and had committed to reading through each Bible and making personal notes to us in the margins as she read. The magnitude of the treasure this would be began to sink in for me when I found my Bible Thursday afternoon. Every time I open this Bible to fill my mind and heart with Truth, I can expect to also find words of wisdom and encouragement from my mom. In a quick glance through Proverbs last night I found these treasures:
Proverbs 14:1, “The wise woman builds her house” with the note that says, “Keep building!”.
Proverbs 15:26, “In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge.” Beside that verse she had written the names of all of her grandchildren.
Proverbs 17:14, “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.” She wrote, “Your dad is good at this.”
And finally there was even one of her famous reminders next to Proverbs 22:3, “The prudent sees evil and hides himself, but the naive go on and are punished for it.” She wrote, “Think ahead!”
Faithfulness to God from generation to generation was the greatest desire of her heart. She loved the Lord with all of her heart, mind, soul and strength and she devoted her life to learning to love the people around her, whomever they might be, personally and well. I long for heaven more today than I ever have before and I am confident that she will have the party in full swing for me when I am finally able to join her there. I am beyond grateful to know that she and I will spend eternity together in our favorite place; celebrating and casting our crowns at the feet of Jesus.