-Ricky, Jerri, family, friends, coworkers, I, like you all wished this day had never come
-At least not so quickly
-We all learn early on that death is a part of the human experience but we expect to lose great grand parents, grand parents, and parents
-We do not expect to lose our children
-When we do it is crushing
-It devastates even the strongest among us
-Ricky and Jerri are two of the strongest people I know
-Jerri rightly pointed out that God blessed them with a child like Trey with all of his physical limitations because God knew they could handle it
-They had the patience and determination to see him through the many months in the hospital, through the long nights, through the many hours of driving to doctors appointments and seeing specialists
-Trey was a truly special kid
-With all of the challenges that were given to him, he had every excuse in the world to be unhappy. But he was a happy child that took every challenge handed him and continued to fight.
-It was fitting that his family referred to him as Superman. It was appropriate that he was wearing his Superman pajamas the morning that he died. He truly was a Superman.
-Kind of like the comic book hero, the forces of this world did not limit Trey. What I mean is that he had every reason to give up but he continued to fight with all his might to overcome. {PAUSE}
-There are some other Supermen that needed to be mentioned as well.
-Ricky, you are a man of amazing strength and I’m not talking about your physical strength. That you were able to hold your family together through the trials that you all have faced is extraordinary. You are to be commended for keeping your family together. That statistics bear out that the odds were against y’all.
-Jerri, your sacrifices to keep up with the demands of a special needs child are to be noted as well. You are an exceptional mother. The love and care you have for Trey and the rest of your children is remarkable.
-Lauren, you are an amazing big sister. The way that you helped your mom to take care of Trey is unusual for someone so young. You’ve had to grow up faster than a lot of girls your age.
-I’m sure you’re familiar with the old saying about turning lemons into lemonade. Ricky and Jerri, you all have done amazing work at raising awareness and to raise money to support the March of Dimes whose mission is to help babies stay in utero to full term and to prevent birth defects.
-You all organized “Team Trey” to raise money for the March of Dimes. The t-shirts for the team that you made up and wore to the family visitation at the funeral home is a demonstration of your love for Trey and for all the other Trey’s in the world struggling with physical problems.
-Lesser people would have shrunk in the face of your challenges but God empowered you to rise above it and help others. {PAUSE}
-There are some other Supermen that need to be mentioned as well.
-There are all first responders from security forces, the sheriff’s department and the fire department that tried to be God’s hands and feet, bringing life back to Trey’s little body.
-Their hard work and determination often gets overlooked.
-We often think of them as the folks that stop us and give us tickets when we are in a hurry.
-However, they are the men and women that you want to come to help when you are in need.
-When you have an emergency and you pick up the phone, they are always there.
-We learned a number of things from September 11. One of the biggest is that first responders are some amazing people. When everyone else is running away from danger, they are running into the fray.
-There aren’t any finer first responders than the folks on this base. They truly are Supermen. {HAVE THEM STAND UP IF ANY ARE THERE}
-You know, Superman has been a part of American culture for a long time. Superman came out in the DC Comics in the late 1930s. His character really established the superhero genre of literature.
-The Superman movies came out when I was a kid. I don’t know if those of you younger than I took the time to go back and watch them when you were growing up but they are some classics.
-The first Superman movie gives us all of the background for the remaining movies. Superman was born on the planet of Krypton. The son of Jor-El. Jor-El realizes that Krypton is going to be destroyed but the ruling council won’t let him tell anyone so he sends his son off in a space ship to Earth before the planet is destroyed.
-When Superman gets to earth, he is discovered by a couple and raised as their own.
-If the spaceship out in Smallville wasn’t enough, his miraculous powers help them to realize that he is “not from around here” as they say.
-One night, the glowing green mineral leads him to set off to the Artic to discover his abilities and mission on earth.
-After some years of training, he sets off to save the world.
-He does some pretty miraculous feats and in the process falls in love with Lois Lane.
-During one of his feats, he sends a missile out into space that explodes and sets the three evil villains from Krypton, General Zod, Ursa and Non free from their floating prison through space.
-Once Lois Lane finally notices his cover persona, Clark Kent, he decides to go to his Fortress of Solitude and undergo a process to take away his superpowers so that he can live as a human with Lois.
-But General Zod, Ursa and Non come to earth and take over. Clark has to go back to his former Arctic fortress to see if he can regain his powers. He is able to do so and finally defeats these three very powerful foes. {PAUSE}
-The similarities between Superman and Jesus are uncanny. Even Wikipedia acknowledges it.
-Jesus, like Superman, came from a place “not from around here” and was endowed with miraculous powers because He is God.
-He too was raised by human parents, who saw that He was special.
-He too had a calling and was sent out to fulfill it. But His calling was greater. His job was to save the whole human race.
-Jesus gave up some of his divine power for our sake so that in taking on all the forces of evil, He could win in a most unusual way, by dying.
-And by raising Himself again from the dead, He has defeated for us, our last enemy, death.
-Now, those of us that trust in Jesus for our eternal security, don’t have to be concerned about death.
-Death is now a doorway into life everlasting.
-However, that is not the end.
-Some day, Jesus is coming back again, to raise all of our bodies to life again.
-Our bodies and souls will be rejoined and we will live forever in bodies like these but won’t have any physical limitations anymore.
-The good thing for Trey and for all of us is that Jesus loves children even more than we do.
-He said that unless a person becomes like a little child, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
-We all have to become like little children, that is understanding that we are dependent on one greater than ourselves, in order to get into heaven.
-That’s often difficult for those of us in the military and really of all of us because we are taught to be independent.
-But we all need to realize that we need someone greater than ourselves. We need our Superman, Jesus.
