The Funeral of Edith Cutrer

Introduction

Let me say this right from the start. Death is not the end of Ms Edith’s story; it is the beginning of her story of eternity with Jesus.

Family and friends, we are gathered here at Sharkey’s Funeral today because we all, all of us here, have one fundamental human problem and that is called death.

That problem came knocking on the door of Ms. Edith Cutrer’s home on North Prewitt Street in Magnolia early on the morning of November 22, 2022.

And it will come knocking for us one day. The great playwright George Bernard Shaw said this: the statistics on death have not changed, one out of one person dies.” And your family and your friends will gather at some funeral home or some church very much like we have done today when that problem comes knocking at your door. Ms. Edith was ready, are you?

Worldwide 56,600,000 die each year. That works out to 4.7 million each moth, 155,000 per day, 6,500 per hour, 107 per minute and one every 1.8 seconds.

Maybe that is why the writer James says in James 4:14 “14 you do not know what will happen tomorrow, what your life will be like. For you are a smoky vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears.”

But I am here to tell you today although life is short MS. Edith Cutrer made the most of her life, and death, it took her body on November 22,2022 to the grave but death could not hold her soul and spirit in the grave because she was ready. At an early age she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. The Apostle Paul says for the Christian death has no sting because to be absent from this body is to be present with God. Right now Ms. Edith is in the presence of Almighty God.

I have personally know Ms. Edith for approximately 22 years and if I would zero in on a Scripture that describes Ms. Edith, it would be Ephesians 5:1-2

Ephesians 5:1–2 LEB

1 Therefore become imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, just as also Christ loved us, and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant smell.

And the key words in that passage of Scripture, I want to call your attention to are “live in love.” I can believe more than anything else, the best way to describe Ms. Edith is that she was a woman who lived in love.

Ms Edith lived in love for her family.

I remember like it was yesterday, I got a call from Ms Edith saying that Mickey, her husband, was in the VA Hospital in Jackson and he is having heart problem and I am concerned about his salvation. Can you please go up to the hospital and share the Gospel with him?

A request like that you can never say no, so I headed up to the VA Hospital and Mickey and I talked a long time and then I asked him if something were to happen while you were in the hospital do you know where you will spend eternity. He said that he did not. So I share with him what Christ had done for Him, and I share the gift of salvation that Christ has offered to each of us. And Mickey said, I want that for my life and he went on to pray the sinner’s prayer with me. And Mickey became a changed man, and Ms. Edith was so happy that her husband would be spending eternity with her. She talked to me about that so many times.

I think one of the best periods of her life is when the whole family worked together at Southern Custom Furniture, the business you all had, right there on Hwy 51 in Magnolia. Mickey, Ms. Edith, Eric and Tommy all working together. That thrilled her soul.

Speaking of Eric and Tommy, you two guys were blessed to have a mother who loved you so much and would do anything that she could possibly do for you if you needed it.

And grandchildren and great grandchildren, you were blessed with a very loving grandmother.And just like with her sons, if there was anything that she could do to help you all. she was going to try her best to do it.

I said that she was a woman who lived in love, and Tommy told me this story when we got together and talked about Ms Edith on Thanksgiving night.She had gotten home from a difficult time in the hospital battling pneumonia and having to be on a ventilator for several days in the ICU, when she developed a high fever on Monday night and was having a difficulty breathing. Tommy was there, the family had come and gone throughout the evening, and as he was holding his mother’s hand, she voiced what we did not know at the time was her final words. They were: I love you, son.

And I thought to myself how appropriate that her final words were expressing love since her whole life was about love. Make no mistake about it, Ms Edith loved her family. And if you were her son or her grandchild or great grandchild, you were blessed by God to call this woman mom or grandmother.

Ms Edith lived in love with her God and His church.

As I had said earlier, Ms. Edith gave her heart to Christ at a early age and served Him faithfully all the time she had on earth.

Ms. Edith is what the church calls a prayer warrior. She was constantly going to God on behalf of others, and God honored her faithfulness with many answered prayer.

When she attended Immanuel Baptist in Magnolia, she taught Sunday School. Evon Bynum told me this week that she remembers Ms. Edith as her teacher.

In the year 2000, she came to Bala Chitto Baptist Church. Several things I remember about her time there.

First, she was a great cook. When the church would gather for a fellowship dinner, she would always bring an abundant amount of food, and it was good. Ms. Edith was a fine cook.

Secondly, I remember our Vacation Bible Schools. She always volunteered. At the time we had a young boy in our church with some physical difficulties and she would want to work with him one on one. And what she did was allowed that young boy to have a great time at Vacation Bible School. And she had a great time and she got blessed by God.

Thirdly, I remember when Wayne Monceret died, she took April, Wayne’s daughter, and her children under her wing. I can still hear these two children running around the church calling her grandma.

Thing changed for Ms. Edith in 2015 when she was involved in a bad auto accident out on Hwy 44. She ending up with two neck surgeries that slowed her down. Prior to that, she was blowing and going in that van that she owned. And over time she became housebound.

But that was OK with her, she had her television and she would watch those Christian channels to have church at home. She had family always popping in on her and she was surrounded by the animals she loved.

And what I am trying to say to you, is that Ms. Edith did not allow the difficulties of life to change the type of person she was. Somethings the difficulties of life will make you hard, callous but not Ms. Edith. Ms Edith lived a life of love and nothing was going to change that.

And I know Ms. Edith she would want me to ask you her family and her friends the same question that I asked Mickey. Do you know where you will be spending eternity? Give it some thought because of what James, the brother of Jesus said: we are a smoky vapor that appears for a little while and disappear. Do’t put off knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You might find that you put it off to long and you ran out of time.

In closing let me read our Scripture again one more time. Ephesians 5:1-2

Ephesians 5:1–2 (LEB)

1 Therefore become imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, just as also Christ loved us, and gave himself for us...

Live in love- Ms Edith modeled that for all the world to see. A love you can only have from a personal relationship with Jesus.We will be placing her body in the grave shortly, but her salvation tells me she is in the presence of Almighty God. And for that, we need to rejoice.

Let us Pray!

Graveside

I don’t know if you are familiar Helen Keller. She was a woman who lost her sight at the age of 19 months due to an illness. She went on to be a author, an advocate for people with disabilities and she lectured world wide.

And what I want to share with you is what she said about Death: “Death is no more than passing from one room into another.  But there’s a difference for me, you know.  Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” 

Ms Edith Cutrer on November 22, 2022 passed from one room to another. Let’s call this other room- heaven. In this room, there is no more having to use a walker; there is no pain. She can move her neck any which way she wants. There will be no more bottles of medicine to have to take daily. And she will see the the love of her life again- Mickey.

Heaven is a great place and Ms. Edith is there right now.