After the recent death of my Grandfather, I was asked to write down a few thoughts to be shared at his funeral. It was a daunting task. My Grandfather had crammed a lot of life into his ninety-six years. As a young man, he trained to be a cabinet maker. During WWII he moved to Toronto and worked at de Havilland Aircraft manufacturing Mosquito bombers. Following his return to the Maritimes he taught high School woodworking for thirty years. After taking an early retirement, he followed his passion and entered the ministry. As long as his health allowed, he served faithfully in the work of the ministry.
One of the first memories I have is as a toddler, squirming out of my Dad’s arms in church to run across the aisle to my Gramps arms. My Dad would get irritated by the running back and forth, but it didn’t bother Gramp, he loved spending time with us. He would get down on the floor and play, always having an interest in what we were doing. A highlight of the summer was going camping with my Grandparents. After Gramp entered the ministry, my brother and I would go stay in the big old parsonage in the country, and on Sundays we would travel from church to church while Gramp conducted services. He was a great spiritual influence in our lives. Gramp baptised my brother and I, performed our marriages, and was involved in the dedication services for our children.
Gramp had a great sense of humour and loved to tell jokes. Puns, which he said were the lowest form of humour, were his specialty. Gramp was a story teller. He loved to tell a good story, and he always had a story to tell: Saint John church history stories, stories of his childhood, stories of falling down an elevator shaft, wartime stories at de Havilland Aircraft, and stories of teaching high school. On one occasion he caught a student smoking in the bathroom. The unfortunate fellow quickly stuck the cigarette in his back pocket. Rather than drag him down to the office, Gramp played innocent and engaged him in a rather lengthy conversation. When it seemed he was good and uncomfortable, and somewhat smoky, Gramp wished him a good-day, told him to quit smoking, and left him to put out the fire in his pants.
As we grew older his stories turned to sermons. No matter what the topic of conversation, he had a verse, or passage of scripture. It didn’t matter where he started; he always ended with Grace, God’s unmerited favour, extended to us through Jesus. The Gospel was his passion. He would always finish up by saying, “It must be time to pass the plate, since I’ve preached you a sermon”. When his health began to fail he often remarked that he sensed Jesus’ presence so near. On one of our last visits, when he was so weak, he said “Oh, I’d love to go to church.” The desire of his heart was to be in his Saviors’ presence. We know that is where he is.
I Thessalonians 4:13, 17,18 says:
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope….16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
And so he will be in the presence of his Lord forever. The Message says it like this:
17 He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they'll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we'll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master.
One huge family reunion! Amen.
