So, I've been thinking a fair bit about death lately. You see, my Grandma Young, 85, passed away on Valentine's Day from complications from open heart surgery. She and I were really close, so it's been hard for my family and me. It's also a time for rejoicing, though, because Grandma's trust was in Christ. I was blessed to have an opportunity to give a eulogy at her memorial service. These were some of my thoughts:
If you met Grandma even once, you know that she was an amazing woman. She had this incredible ability to make people feel welcome and loved. She often took people into her home to feed them, to give them a bed, to listen to what was on their heart, and to lend her advice (whether they asked for it or not!).
There is so much I could say about how she was an inspiration to hundreds of people. She went back to college (ISU!) in her 40's when her youngest son (my dad) graduated high school and went there as well. She then became a high school English teacher in Clarion for almost 20 years and was simply called "Ma" Young by her students. Towards the end of her life she divulged to me that she would occasionally shut the door to her classroom to pray with her students. Even though it was illegal, not one of her students ever complained or reported her. Dozens of her former students came to her visitation or funeral. How many of your high school teachers made such an impact in your life that you would go to their funeral --- thirty-five years after you last had a class with them?
Grandma never really retired like we think of retirement. She worked part time for my dad until October of last year. Until two weeks before she died, she played piano for the contemporary service at her church. When I asked her how she could stand the drums being so loud, she said, "I just turn down my hearing aids and I can't hear a thing!"
Grandma's greatest inspiration, though, wasn't any of the things she did. If that's all we're inspired by, we've missed the main point of her life--- her faith in Christ. My last memory of Grandma is visiting her in her hospital room, a week before she died. It was just Sam and I at her bedside when she asked us to pray for her. When I asked her what she wanted me to pray for (I get teary-eyed just thinking about this...) she said, "Please pray that I would help people to know the Lord."
Grandma's life and love was invested in the Creator of in the universe and His Son, the Savior of humankind. Her love for family and friends (though great) paled in comparison. Certainly she was far from perfect, but she realized that she fell short of God's holy and perfect standard and knew her need for a Savior. Her trust was in Christ for her redemption, not the work of her hands. This was her greatest inspiration.
The wonderful 18th century American preacher/theologian, Jonathan Edwards, had a similar outlook on death as my grandma did. Edwards wrote the following note to his daughter, Lucy, as she was the only family member present at his deathbed. His love for his wife is so eloquently and beautifully expressed that it causes my heart to well up with excitement as I look forward to having such a deep and long-lasting marriage with Sam. The last two sentences of this letter are so faith-filled and God-centered that I even get pumped at the thought of my own death! I'll end with Edwards' simple last words to his family:
"Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue for ever: and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children you are now to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a father who will never fail you."
