I was
at a funeral just recently of a man who walked with God his whole life. He was
what I would call a SAGE of the faith, and there are not as many of them in
Christendom as there should be. In
fact I often called him “Gandalf” as he was tall and had white hair with a long
white beard and was very wise. He was known in our community as GRANDPA, as a
large part of our ministry is to hurting, dysfunctional families through a
ministry called Southern Cross Kids Camp (SCKC) and Southern Cross Club
(SCC). So all the children came to
call him Grandpa. I have only known him for about 12 years and so when you go
to someone’s funeral the rest of the story gets filled in. I learned that what
he gave to us all and the families in our community was how he lived his whole
life. He had many paternal grandchildren ages ranging from 15-25 years old, and
each of them wanted to speak at their Grandfather’s funeral. Through tears they
told stories of a man that was always intentional about the time he gave them.
He took them all on challenging and stretching adventures, and always had a
story to tell that was grounded in His faith and walk with God. His adult
children shared similar stories and were incredibly thankful for the legacy
that their father had left them with.
They shared how this was not something that had been modeled by the
previous generation and that their mother and father were creating something
new in the family. As one of the sons finished, he said this week he had been
asking himself “what do I do now?” He came to the answer, “to do what Dad did!” What a legacy to leave.
As we listened to the love and deep faith of this
man, in the way he loved his wife, children and grandchildren, it was very
moving. They spoke of the special role he played at Southern Cross Kids Camps
and Southern Cross Club and how it meant so much to him to give to these
children as well. Little did the family know that two of the children who had
been at those camps, who are now youth, independently made their way to the
funeral to be there to honor his life and say goodbye. The two walked up to Grandma (the man’s wife) and hugged
her after the funeral and she was so touched that they had come. The boy said
to her “I missed school for this, but the teachers and my parents understood
that this was an important person in my life, so they let me come.”
Proverbs 13:22 say, “A good life gets passed onto
the grandchildren” (MSG).
Everything about us, says something about us. Nothing is wasted and time
is short. A funeral has a way of reminding us that life is not to be wasted and
to ask the question, ‘what will really matter when all is said and done?’ It will be the time, the adventures,
the memories, the love, the way we lived our life that will be remembered and
passed on. The things we stood
for. The tears at this funeral were largely for the loss of not having him
around anymore, not because of what he didn’t do, or of what he didn’t say, or of how
he didn’t live or who he didn’t love. Not only was there the peace of knowing that
he is in a better place, but a joy that we even knew him at all.
The number of people who said to me after the
funeral, “If my grandchildren speak like that about me at my funeral I will be
very happy”, was amazing. Christ
was honored that day, Christ was honored in his life and he left a legacy that
will last and bring hope to the next generation. I can only imagine Jesus
saying to him in heaven “Welcome, well done good and faithful servant”.
What legacy are you building today? What will be
passed onto the next generation because you have lived?
