Good Morning and welcome to Irondale Church. Today we are here to remember, to share and to celebrate Christina ________ and her life. Christina’s family wanted to express their appreciation for your presence here today and to tell you there will be a gathering at the Tri-Area Community Center for cake and coffee immediately following this service.
Christina did not like funerals, she didn’t want anybody singing at the service today and as I spoke with the family they decided that even if there was no singing there should also be no moping. God allowed Christina to live for 89 years, and though we grieve the loss, we are grateful for the time she lived. Today rather than her death, we want to focus on her life: Her work and contributions too so many; the things we learned from her and the life she lived in this community. Later in the service today, there will be a time of open sharing, so if you have a favorite memory or statement you would like to share, you will have an opportunity.
Right now would you join with me in prayer asking God’s blessing on our time together.
Dear Lord you are the creator, the sustainer and the taker of life. We humbly come before you today, grateful that you created Christina, that you allowed her to live 89 years and that you allowed her to share so much with so many. We are disappointed that her life has ended and we are grateful that her memory continues to keep her alive in our hearts. We are also thankful for the Lord Jesus who died as a sacrifice for our sins and we are grateful that Christina was a professing Christian. So we can be confident, that though she has left here, she is now with you in heaven forever.
Dear Lord we pray your blessings on this service. We ask that your presence be felt, that you would comfort these who mourn and that your Spirit would help this time to be a time that would express our love and appreciation for Christina and You.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Reading of obituary
Christina was only six years old when she and her family boarded a train, left North Dakota, traveled to Seattle and settled in Quilcene. The year was 1924. World War 1 was over, logging was the financial life of Quilcene and Calvin Coolidge was President. Christina was 11 years old when the Great Depression struck America’s economy. Though WW1 had been dubbed “the war to end all wars”, Christina was 20 when WW2 began and 27 when it ended. She watched as loggers quit swinging axes and started using chainsaws. She undoubtedly washed clothes on a scrub board and was likely excited to hear of the invention of a washing machine. Unfortunately, the machine required electricity so it was of little use. If there was electricity in their home, it would have been minimal. Kerosene probably provided the household lights; wood the heat; clothes were ironed with a piece of steel heated on the stove; toast was made in a frying pan and the abacus was the closest thing to a computer.
Christina was 42 when the first American astronaut went in outer space. Fortunately, by that time, she had already been watching television for 15 or 20 years, or she never would have believed it. If your Grandma seemed from time to time to be a little old fashioned, or if she seemed to be reluctant to change, it would probably be best to remember she experienced a lot of change and has done just fine. She grew up in an era when buying a candy bar was huge treat and told stories of hiding her candy bars so she could have a small bit each day for a week or more. But, hiding a candy bar was no small feat in a home with 13 children.
Christina spent a lot of her time this past 20 years volunteering where she could. She was an active participant in events and affairs of the Tri-Area Community Center. She helped in the food bank and anywhere else she could. She loved doing crafts, enjoyed baking and always had a soft spot for babies. She was an active part of the Tri-Area Christmas for Children project. But putting $10 worth of Match Box Cars under the Christmas tree at the building supply was not her thing. No, she felt the need to hand-crochet stocking hats for every child in need. Up to 300 hats a year for many years. I calculated that to be enough yarn to reach from here to North Dakota and back and enough example to teach 65 descendants that the charitable work you do has more value than an entire career of earning money.
I promised you a time of open sharing. At this point, I want to open the floor to you to share your personal memories, thoughts, and experiences you had with Christina.
Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28-31 read as follows:
Isa 40:28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
Isa 40:29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Isa 40:30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
Isa 40:31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
The old hymn, which we will not sing today, says, “Leaning on the everlasting Arms, safe and secure from all alarms.” The song paints a word picture of someone, perhaps us, with our heads nestled against the Lord, relaxed and still. The passage from Isaiah 40 paints a different word picture; the picture of busy people continuing to work, long after others have dropped out.
By placing our hope in the Lord and applying all our works and efforts for Him and His principles, we will find life rewarding and our energy sustained.
If our work is only good for this life and if our efforts and energy die when we do, we have a sad commentary for our time spent on earth. The “wings” that carry us in this life are capable of carrying us and our labor beyond death, to a legacy and even into heaven.
The Bible teaches that we are saved by the grace and mercy of God. Ephesians 2:8-9 say, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Though our works don’t save us, our works do make a difference. Our works make a difference in how we think of ourselves and they make a difference in what others think of us. Our works don’t get us to heaven, but they make the road more rewarding.
I wanted to leave you with the picture, that the Bible leaves us with, the picture of heaven. The apostle John has a vision and sees heaven and records it for us. This is a portion of what he wrote:
Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Rev 21:4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Rev 21:16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide.
Rev 21:17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick
Rev 21:18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
Rev 21:19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.
Rev 21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
Rev 21:22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Rev 21:23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Rev 21:24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
Rev 21:25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.
Rev 21:26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
Rev 21:27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
The Lamb’s book of Life contains the names of those who have professed Jesus Christ as their Lord.
1Th 4:13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
1Th 4:14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
1Th 4:15 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
1Th 4:16 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.
1Th 4:17 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.
1Th 4:18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
It is my hope and prayer today that each of you know and love the Lord Jesus.
Would you please stand and if you know it recite the Lord’s Prayer with me:
Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever.
Insert Poem.
Close in Prayer. Include—confess—repent—believe—receive.
You are dismissed to the Community Center.
