Funeral George Elijah Jr.
Notes
Transcript
06/11/2023
Leak Memory Funeral Home
11:00 am
Welcome & Prayer-Pastor
I want welcome you to this celebration of life of George Elijah Jr. On behalf of the family, wife-Claudia, Son-Holt & future daughter in law, Grayson, Brother Nick and Mother Trish, and his extended family, thank you for all of your expressions of love during this sorrow filled time. Thank you for the calls, the texts, the visits and especially your presence here today.
Let’s Pray:
Dear Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we gather here today as a people with heavy hearts to honor and remember George Elijah Jr.; a husband, a dad, a son, a brother, a relative, and a dear friend, my dear friend. Oh Heavenly Father,we thank you that your Word offers the promise "I have come that they may have life, and that they have it more abundantly.” Oh Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that George grasped that abundant life you offer and lived his time here on earth to its fullest.
Oh our hearts ache that his life was taken so senselessly. Oh dearly beloved Heavenly Father, as well, would you wrap your loving arms around the Lopez family in the passing of a dad, Ramero and a son, Daniel. Be with that family as they hurt. Provide comfort and healing as only can be founded in You.
Lord, I know each one here today thanks you for sharing George with us for the time he was given here. Thank you for allowing us to experience life with him. Oh dear God, we all have been blessed for the time we knew George and you introduced him into our lives.
Lord, as we come together in this time of sorrow, we ask for your comfort, your sustaining grace and your embrace upon this family and these friends that hurt. Lord, provide strength as only you can, provide hope as only you can, Lord help each one to reflect upon the great memories, the great times and the things George instilled in each one of us.
Lord, thank you for the hope and assurance of eternal life found in You.
Lord, now guide this service. Fill our hearts with the love and support these family and friends need at this time. Help us to be your hands and feet in ministering to this family. May we celebrate George’s life and edify you dear Jesus. Invade us with Your presence and your sensitive touch. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.
Scripture Reading-Pastor
Nothing ministers like God’s Word in times as these:
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Song-”Pass it On” Tracy Byrd
Eulogy & Message-Pastor
George Herbert Elijah, Jr. of Montgomery passed away June 4th 2024 at 50 years of age.
He is preceded in death by his father George Herbert Elijah, Sr. and his grandparents Bettie C and Joe Elijah and Gloria Gerrish and James Joshua Couch, Jr.
He is survived by his wife Claudia Sullivan Cauthen, his beloved son Mitchell Holt Elijah, mother Patricia White Couch, brother Nicholas Bailey Elijah, soon to be daughter in law Grayson Olivia Harris, and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.
George was a graduate of Lowndes Academy and an avid outdoorsman who was named Top 10 Bama Turkey Hunter at age 18. However, anyone who knew George knew he believed his greatest accomplishment in life was his son Holt.
Pallbearers today are Holt Elijah, John Causey, Hudson Jinright, Jason Little, Stephen Pritchett, Adam Stanfield, Peyton Stanfield, and Hal White.
There will be a graveside service following our time this morning at the Hayneville Cemetery, Hayneville, AL.
For those of you that knew George, George was a big man. Big in the sense that He had a big presence and commanded a room when he walked in. George loved relationship and had so many friends as evidenced by the large number of people here today. You just couldn’t help but like George. He engaged people and made them feel apart of the conversation and would pull people into his circle.
Claudia was blessed to be married to George for almost seven years. She stated one of the things that attracted her to George was his love for his son Holt. She knew that family values were important to George.
She loved how George enjoyed conversing and they enjoyed traveling together. She said, “I love to cook and George loved to eat.” They loved living life together. They enjoyed their dogs, they enjoyed the farm and more recently had grown to love trips to Portland Maine. If I know George, he loved the cooler temperatures of the North and the fresh lobster. They had traveled to the beach more recently for Holt’s engagement celebration. Claudia stated that George was generous and she felt taken care of.
Son Holt stated-Time would not permit to tell you everything my father taught me about life. He always challenged me to be a better man and to be successful. He was big on showing respect, Yes Sir & No Sir. He always stated to do right and to be honest by people. We enjoyed countless memories enjoying fishing, hunting, working at the farm and helping around his store on Carter Hill Road.
Holt has a great sense of humor like his Dad. He said his dad taught him to work, my dad delegated the work and I actually did the work. But in all seriousness, the work taught me many skills to take with me in life.
Grayson, his future daughter in law shared- George’ love for Holt had a tremendous impact as well. She respected him greatly for the commitment he had to Holt. She knows one day assuredly that Holt will be a great dad based on the great example he saw in his father.
Mother Patricia, Trish was enamored with the fact that George adored his son, Holt. He was a momma bear in a man’s body. In those times when George was single, he never pawned off his son. When Holt was a young baby, George carried him everywhere he went and he exposed Holt to the outdoors while he was still in diapers. Trish said “My son cared about people. He was a good person.”
George in the work world was a multi-faceted, many moving parts kind of guy. George was in the car business for years and years, both in Sales, Finance & Insurance along with management. In 2016, George entered into the credit card processing industry and was highly successful. If that wasn’t enough, he started raising cattle and running a cattle farm.
Several family members mentioned George’s entrepreneurial spirit. Many of you may know that a year and half ago he opened a gold& silver, coin and bullion store on Carter Hill Road. He was like a kid in the candy store with a youthful passion learning a totally new industry trade. If you knew George, he was willing to try something new and travel into uncharted waters. That was George.
Brother Nick shares that his brother was very generous. They as well enjoyed the great outdoors together all their lives and Nick would not take anything for those experiences. They loved firearms, both have worked in the car industry and they loved watches and had that commonality. They talked frequently and were close.
I so appreciated Nick’s final remarks as I discussed his brother with him.
Many of you know that on that horrific night at Tienda Los Hermanos grocery store, Nick was the last one to speak to George. They were on the phone when his was killed and Nick shared these last words about his brother.
He said this and I quote: “I’m thankful for George. I am thankful we were talking at the time he died. I am thankful he did not suffer. He passed quickly. I am thankful that George was so happy, in such a good place with Claudia, with the excitement of Holt’s future with Grayson, with his new business that he was enjoying. I am thankful that George was at his best place at this time this occurred in his life.”
There is a great lesson in those words for all of us. There is a cross road we all face. Will we become embittered by what happened are will we be thankful for the time God gave us to be with George?
My name is Luke Finkelstein. George and I had been friends for the last fifteen years. I met George through his dad. George and I as well have enjoyed fishing together and having had a meal together. He loved to horse trade and haggle over firearms that I had for sale in my stores. You would have given anything to be a fly on the wall and hear the back and forth as we negotiated fearlessly to a final sale and trade. I don’t believe one moment that for George, purchasing the firearm was as important as the fun he had, we had playing the game of haggling.
Why do I make those comments? Life for George was more about the journey than the final destination in what he was to accomplish. I imagine the calling of the turkey was the greater high than the kill.
I want to peel back for a moment and be transparent of heart. I had a store on Troy Highway, two blocks from that location from 1989 to July of 2022 where George’s life was taken. Troy Highway was my hub store for the last twenty two years that I was in business before I retired. There, George and I shared business together many times. I know Troy Highway. I had seen it change a great deal over those 33 years that I had a location out there.
My first thought when I heard it happened on Troy Highway was “what in the world was George doing out there at that time of night?” I just want to be forthright.
I will tell you why? Life was about the journey, not the destination. George loved people. Like me, the Lopez family was his customer. He loved to patronize his customers. George had developed a deep seated relationship with the family. He had carried the son Daniel out to shoot guns. Like me, they used the credit card processing company that George represented. He went there that night to buy carrots for his chocolate labs. He was visiting and socializing with the family while making a grocery purchase.
You know why I tell that story? Life is both a journey and a destination. Everyone here today would say George’s life was cut short. Many times in a funeral I will state that life is between the dashes. Life is lived in that time between our birth date and that day we are called home. Life is a culmination of the choices we make. Furthermore, in life, how we live the journey will have a total impact on where our final destination will lie.
Message
I would not leave our time together this morning without addressing the question all of us have. Why? Why did such a bad & sad outcome happen to George & the Lopez family? Lord, why?
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
The story of Job is a story about a man in the Bible that God’s Word states was “blameless and upright.” Furthermore, the Bible states that he was one who “feared God and shunned evil.” That means Job was a good man, a God fearing man who did what was right, not perfect because none of us are perfect, but blameless in the sight oh his fellow man. And, Job was blessed. He had seven sons, three daughters and he was very wealthy.
As one reads the story of Job, we quickly realize that Satan has caused all of us to be victimized by a fallen world. With in minutes, the Chaldeans, the Sabeans and a fierce wind wiped out Job’s family and all of his possessions and Job responded to the Lord with the words I just read.
Dearly family and friends, God’s Word states that “judgment is mine saith the Lord.” There will be reckoning for those that committed this vile act and took George’s life and the Lopez family. Choices. Those that robbed and killed that night made terrible choices and we call that choice sin. In the ten commandments God’s Word states:
“You shall not murder, you shall not steal.”
The reality of what happened in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 in the Bible is that when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, through that linage we have been birthed with an adamic nature, meaning a sin nature. And because of that disobedience we live in a world filled with suffering and evil. When God made man He created Him in His image, but He also created us to have free will and to make choices. God created us to fellowship with Him, but He did not make us robots. He wanted us to love Him freely.
God’s Word states “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” In other words, we as well bear the load of the state this world of sin is in.
Furthermore, the story of Job is a story that vividly states that God made a choice. God allowed Satan to test Job by bringing calamity into his life, but Satan was told He could not take Job’s life.
I do not in any way want to explain away God’s decision in that. God is sovereign.
Isaiah 55:9 “9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
When bad things happen as has happened to George and the Lopez family all we can do is trust God to see us through.
Proverbs 3:5–6 “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
Oh dear family and friends, Jesus Himself suffered for this very cause. To offer an answer to the sin that plagues everyone of us. Jesus suffered for our salvation.
Isaiah 53:3 “3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Jesus was without sin, but as Scriptures state “gave His life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross were for our salvation, showing that God can bring good from the worst of situations.
Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
There was nothing good that happened at Tiendos Los Hermanos Grocery store that dreadful night. But, oh dear friends and family God’s Word promises that for those that are called by Him, those that believe on Him and trust Him, that God can bring good from such a heinous act.
Oh we can be comforted in knowing that God in His great love for You promises His presence in your life.
Romans 8:38–39 “38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Psalm 34:18“18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.” Oh dearly beloved, God wants to be with you in your suffering and offer comfort and hope.
Life is important in how we live the journey. The Lord has an answer in our final destination for the asking. Heaven is available to each one of us that day we are called away from this world.
Romans 8:18 “18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Oh dearly beloved, we are reminded today that this life is literally a dash, the Bible calls life a vapor, its here for a moment and then vanishes.
God through His Son, Jesus Christ offers us the promise of eternal life free from pain and suffering for those who trust Him.
In closing, I can not answer all the questions of why such a sinful act happened to George. I can answer that God loves you and He loves me. God is sovereign. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are different than our ways. God’s Word states that “He is an ever present help in times of trouble.”
What is our hope today? He can offer us eternal life and He has the ability to bring good out of our darkest times.
Song-Hymn Victory in Jesus
Closing Prayer
Oh Gracious Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you for loving us in all times but especially in times as these. Lord, comfort Claudia and Holt, Grayson, Nick and Trish and all the family in their time of loss. Oh Lord, thank you for the life of George. Thank you for the great memories. Lord, please bring comfort during their time of grief as only You can. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.