Memaw Parker's service

Read obit, pray

I first met Glenda Gail, or Memaw Parker as I and so many others called her (some also called her G Force!), about 18 years ago when I started dating her granddaughter, Kristian. I could tell nearly immediatly that she was kind, happy. She liked to express her happiness through the was she dressed. She like to wear happy clothes, never anything dark (that’s why we wear bright colors today). She was a fashionista. She loved shoes, I've heard she loved Skechers in particular! She loved to go to “Belks” and see what they had. And if she was leaving the house the she was going to be fixed up, hair done and outfit on. Whether she was going to church or to “Walmarts”.

She was gentle, but at the same time she was a firecracker. She was loyal, she loved here family. Very much.

When the family would gather she liked to just watch us all together. She’d just sit back and enjoy everyone being there. She was loyal to her high school sweetheart Charles. They married in 1955 when she was 19. After he went to be with the Lord in 1991, she never looked to date again because he was her one and only. I am using his Bible today.

Part of loving her family was keeping a neat and clean house. Her daughters may have even felt she was a little overboard about it! Terry even called her bossy, but that’s ok because Memaw called Terry bossy the last few years!

She wouldn’t let them leave for school in the mornings if they hadn’t made their beds yet. On Saturday mornings she would turn her stereo on real loud with, playing her big band music. That meant that it was time to get up and clean the house!

She once bought a brand new red Cadilac, but it sat in the garage because she didn’t want to mess it up or put miles on it. Instead she would drive Charle’s company car that she could load all the grand kids into and haul them around. Despite her wanting everything clean, she still let Mary get away with licking the spoon in the sugar bowl and putting it back.

She loved her family.

She loved Western movies. She loved to get out her maps to see where everyone was going.

She also love Auburn University. Kristen told me stories before the first time I met her about how much she loved Auburn and how intense she was about it. How she once broke her TV because she was so upset over the game.

I thought I was doing pretty well in the pecking order of her favorite grandson in-laws, then Emily brought Neal (also known as Gill) home. A national championship winning Auburn football player. I knew second place was the best I could do. She loved Auburn.

And when you love Auburn that much, you have certain feelings about The University of Alabama. Those words from earlier, kind, sweet, gentle, they went away when that school was mentioned.

She did not like Bama at all. Hate may not even be too strong a word. She would get very animated about it! She would have been a great caller to the Finebaum show, but I don’t think she ever did call. But she would rant about how all the tv stations and news papers were in love with Alabama and biased toward them, always snubbing her Tigers.

One time she was complaining about how they always reported the weather out of Tuscaloosa. Why did they have to do it from Tuscaloosa. All the places in Alabama and they had to do it from there! We could have told her that’s where their weather equipment was. That weather usually moves west to east so it made sense for them to report it from the west side of the state. But we didn’t. Justin and I told her the news just liked us better. They wanted to report championship weather.

Memaw ended up boycotting channel 6 because of their Bama bias.

The Sunday morning after thee 1985 Iron Bowl when Van Tiffin hit a field goal as time expired to win the game for Alabama, Glenda Gail got the paper and the front page was Tiffin kicking that FG. She tore the paper to shreds she was so sick over it! Charles made her sit down at the table and tape it back together!

John 3:16

More important than all the other things and people she loved, she loved Jesus. She and Charles were members of 67th St Methodist Church where she taught Sunday School, she was in the choir, and the UMWA. Then they went to Wilson’s Chapel. After Charles went to be with the Lord she and her best friend Ann attended Clear Branch Methodist Church.

Kristen told me a couple days ago that Memaw’s favorite Bible verse was John 3:16 and I should use it, even though it’s a basic verse, not a deep cut. But the hits become the hits for a reason! This is one of those single verses that tells us everything we need to know!

read Jn 3:16 from Charle’s Bible

We can break this down and see why it was Gail’s, and so many others, favorite Bible verse.

For God

There is a God in Heaven. The rest of the Scriptures tell us that He is all present, all powerful, all knowing, all righteous, and He is good!

so loved the world

This God is also all loving. He loves His creation, especially the crown jewel of creation, His image bearers. Humanity. Why does He love us? Because He created us, which means we belong to Him. We owe something to Him.

He also loves us because it is who He is. He is love.

1 John 4:8 KJV

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

He gave His only begotten Son

God loves us so much that He gave his Son Jesus for us. Ephesians 2 tells us that He loves us with a great love and that’s why He gave us Jesus! He gave Jesus to be a sacrifice for us, to die in our place for our sin.

Romans 5:8 KJV

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus is God’s Son, fully God and fully human. The only One who could do the saving work. If there were any other way besides giving up his Son, surely He would have done it that way, but He didn’t. So there couldn’t be another way! Only Jesus!

whoever believes in Him

We must believe in Jesus.

Who He is; God’s Son sent from Heaven. He was there in creation and He will be there at new creation. He is eternal.

What He did; He is our sinless Savior who died and rose again.

We must put our faith in Him and no one else!

Acts 4:12 KJV

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

should not perish

This was not a part of creation at first, funeral services. God didn’t want us to have to go through this. But we do. Because of rebellion. Because we rebel against God and against his righteousness. We choose our own way. We sin. Romans 6.23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. We have to have these services, we have to say goodbye, we have to hurt and cry, because of sin.

But we are not without hope!

Before thinking about these last words in John 3:16, I want us to go back through what we have seen so far.

There is a God who created all that has been created, and humanity is the only thing in creation that bears his image.

Humanity chooses sin, which brings death and so we perish.

But God so loves us that He gave his Son Jesus for us. He sent Jesus to live a sinless life in our place and then to bear the penalty for sin in our place.

We are all called, commanded, to put our faith in Jesus. To trust Him to pay the debt for our sins and forgive us, to give us the righteousness we need to stand before God. He has to do these things for us because we cannot do them ourselves. We must believe in who He is and what He did, otherwise we do not receive the promise that John 3:16 closes with.

have everlasting life

Those who believe and trust in Jesus receive life. Everlasting life. But the everlasting life itself isn’t really what we need to be after. What good is everlasting life if the living isn’t good? The gift is that our everlasting life will be in Heaven with God! With our Savior Jesus! He is our portion and our prize! He is the one our hearts long for!

Gail believed in Him!

And she is living with Him now! No more pain, no more cancer, no more tears! Only the joy of seeing Jesus face to face! We see a beautiful picture of what it will be like for this everlasting life in the book of Revelation, ch 21:1-7.

read

Gail will be there, and I know she would want all her family and friends to be there also!

If you have never believed in Jesus and but you do today, or if you just have questions about Jesus, please come see me and I would be so happy tell you about Him!

Earlier this week with her family around her she said that she wouldn't be here much longer. Her sitter Cathy asked if the Big an upstairs told her that and Gail said if He did she didn't listen. But she ended up listenining and she is home with Him now!

Now, we find peace in knowing that her faith has been made sight. We find hope in knowing we can be with her again, but more than that, we can be with Jesus!

Pray