At about 1330H today we put my friend's body in the ground, behind the church she and her husband had attended for more or less thirty years. It was almost seven days to the hour since she breathed her last and opened her eyes in eternity in the presence of another Friend who loved her before she loved Him.
There that body will lie until a short interruption when its Creator raises it again occupied once more by my friend albeit this time an incorruptible body, made like unto His, and along with His saints still in time, whose bodies shall be changed to be like His, and like my friend's, and like others countless before her, she and they shall ever be with their Friend, King, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Kinsman, Shepherd.
I have the same hope.
And so does my wife.
I pray that my children will all have the same hope burning and nourished in their hearts, and all who are dear to me as well.
We buried her body today, and remembered her.
Kind words were spoken.
Loving words were tendered.
I called her WYSIWYG.
What You See Is What You Get.
Because that was exactly the only phrase to describe her, and her husband.
The second Sunday of November 1998 was when we first met them.
My wife and I had been looking for a home church, and the good Lord led us to this old, white, wooden church by the side of the highway, with a plaque describing it as having a history going way back to the 1700's.
We entered and the first thing I noticed was....."all white".
I turned to leave quietly, but my wife was blocking my way, and she pushed me towards the seat, this wife of mine who just trusts.
I don't just trust.
I did most of my growing up in mean streets and have learned that trust is a fragile word, and can hurt you, or kill you, and so by choice even now at 62 I do not have many that I call "friend".
But at the end of that service, and before the end of that day, we have been invited to this my friend's house and have eaten lunch with them, and she hovering around like a mother hen, making sure my wife and I and her husband had everything we needed, and her smile and her hugs were sooooooo warm, and a few more Sundays, a few more lunches, and I knew.
She was WYSIWYG : What You See, Is What You Get.
No pretenses, no make ups, no hidden agenda, no nothing but friendship, trust, love, and respect.
She calls her son, EVERYDAY, to make sure he was alright, to tell him they loved him, and her son is in his 60's.
Many times when we left church and moved to Buffalo, she called us just to say "hello", and leave a message in our answering machine that we were missed.
Her neighbors call her grandma, and her husband, grampa.
Their fridge was almost always all stocked up and overflowing with food, even the freezer, yet there were just two of them "old crows" in that house, because that food was for just about anybody hungry whom they welcomed into their home.
A mailman.
A mechanic.
A neighbor.
A plumber.
My heart goes out to my friend's husband.
They had been together for 64 years.
Done everything together.
Raised up a kid, now a man.
Lost a daughter, and buried her in the same church backyard.
They slept in the same bed, in the same room, those years.
They took care of a dog, a parakeet, an African grey, together.
They mowed their yard, kept it, and their neighbors', and took care of their neighbors' pets.
Together.
And now, she's gone.
Just memories.
Clothes in the closet, the smell of her on the bed, on the pillows and sheets.
Towels in the racks.
Food in the fridge.
Her cookbooks, her recipes in the computer, slippers on the floor.
Her body in that hole in that ground, topped with that tombstone.
But in his heart of heart, he knows, they will meet again, he will see her again, and he may weep for weeks and months, but eventually, that hope that burns in his heart, a Living Hope, will be his comfort, and his assurance.
Faith, the Bible says, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The God they love, and whom I love IS love.
Her insides all messed up, her legs broke, she would have suffered immeasurable pain had He allowed her to live.
He would have had a hard time taking care of all her needs, there just being two of them, even with those they love coming by.
They both would have been buried in debts and bills and all those things that make for living in this messed up, sin-laden world.
Taking her from him, He spared him all these, and with the faith that He Himself gifted them both, he KNOWS just as surely that he had her for 64 years, he will be with her again, for eternity, in a far, far, far better world.
Goodbye, again, my dear sister and friend.
