Mom's Funeral service

The Day of Mom’s Death

I left early on Monday morning, the day after Easter Sunday, for Midland to be with Mom and Dad. Just as I was nearing Silver City, Dad called to say that God had called Mom home on Easter Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

I had pictured this day in my mind many times, particularly over the past several years of Mom's life. I pulled over to the side of the road, just the other side of Silver City, to gather myself and reflect on the news of moms passing.

Initially, tears began to flow, and then just as quickly as the tears came, an indescribable joy washed over my whole being as I began to smile, laugh, and even sing.

It is the kind of joy that can only be experienced in the person of Jesus Christ. There is nothing this side of heaven that can describe the indescribable joy that I felt. If anyone had seen me at that moment in time, they would have thought I was crazy.

I had just finished reading Ecclesiastes chapter 7 the morning of my drive and my mind quickly went to what the writer wrote when he said...

“Better is the day of your death than the day of your birth.... Ecclesiastes 7:1, and in Ecclesiastes 7:8 “Better is the end of a thing that its beginning.”

Now, this is completely counterintuitive to our way of thinking. It might even be considered an oxymoron in its terms.

But I believe with all my heart that it was never truer of anyone who has ever walked the face of the earth than my mom, particularly during the last several years of her life.

Because you see we all are born into a world plagued by sin, death, and suffering. Death and separation from our loved ones were never God’s intention for His creation from the beginning.

For the believer, death is a release from this body of sin and death into the presence of the living God. Mom has now been released from all her years of pain and suffering into the unspeakable and unimaginable joy of being in the presence of her Lord and Savior.

So, it is appropriate that our response to my mom should be one of laughter, singing, and dancing, and unspeakable joy.

John 14:1–7 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

The one thing Mom requested of this service today is that it would all be about Jesus.

Mom believed that Jesus was the only way to Salvation. She also believed, with her very last breath, that from the dawn of creation, God had been preparing a place for her in His kingdom and that He was coming again to take her to her heavenly home.

I am confident that Mom, in all her straightforwardness and honesty, would ask you point blank today. Do you believe this? Romans 10:9

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 ESV

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

I am confident that if Mom were here today, she would implore you not to be uninformed about the truth of the resurrection.

Mom believed with her very last breath that Jesus died on the cross as the penalty for her sins, rose from the dead three days later, and would one day return for His own.

I am confident that if Mom were here today, she would ask you with all the urgency she could muster. Do you believe this?

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 ESV

54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Paul, the day of His death was a testament to the transformative power of faith. The sting of death and the power of sin were triumphantly swallowed up in the glorious victory of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Mom is now clothed with the imperishable and standing with all the saints who have gone before in the immortality promised to all who believe.

So, for those of you who do believe this and count yourselves among the redeemed, it’s time to dance, sing, and rejoice in the moment that Mom closed her eyes here on this earth and opened them in the place of unspeakable joy, in the presence of her Lord and Savior. As Jesus told the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise.

You might ask how I know all of this about my moms deep seated convictions.

When I was seven, my mom led me to the Lord. I remember kneeling by my mom’s bed in that small country house outside of Spring Lake, Texas, and calling on the name of Jesus Christ alone to save me from my sins. So, mom did not just profess her faith she lived it out. My life has never been the same, and for that, I will forever be eternally grateful.

Prior to Mom and Dad's 54th wedding anniversary, Dad wrote 54 things that he is thankful for my mom. I think this is the greatest picture of God’s grace and mercy on display in Mom and Dad's life together of over 60 years.

Thank You Nancy

So, you see mom has fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith and has now received the crown of life that has been waiting for her all along. Mom is home.