Shirley Smith Celebration of Life

John 14:1–6 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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? 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. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Shirley is no longer troubled. She no longer is dealing with the tumors upon her kidney and liver. She no longer is experiencing the pain that cancer brings. Her diabites is gone. Her dimensia is gone. Anything that ailed her and troubled her is gone. Her heart is no longer troubled. That’s good news!

Why is it good news? Because Shirley believe in God, believed in Jesus the Son, and believed in Holy Spirit and is now at home with her Lord and Savior in one of those rooms He prepared just for her. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). Shirley believed in Jesus, followed Jesus, and therefore is now with Jesus in the place where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no pain, no worries, just peace, joy, and the glory of the Father.

This is a section of Scripture that Shirley had underlined in her Bible, as Tom discovered. Why did Shirley have it underlined? To be assured of her place with God following her life on this earth. Do you have that same assurance?

Shirley in her kind way, would want you to be assured of this same truth, that you can rest at peace with God, if you embrace the grace of Jesus. Jesus came with one clear agenda into this world - to redeem men and woman to God through knowledge of the truth, God’s truth. No one will see God, and inherit the Kingdom of God who does not know the Son and call Him Lord and Savior.

This exchange is recorded as happening as Jesus is preparing the disciples for His crucifixion, His departure from this world (John 13:1) during the Passover Festival. Passover was the celebration of the Jewish peoples deliverance from the bondage and power of Egypt and it’s king Pharoah. The Angel of Death came and struck down the first born male of Egypt and all the firstborn of their livestock. Why? because Pharoah would not let Israel go to worship God. So much so, that God ended up hardening Pharoah’s heart to show the wonders of a God who is invested in the lost human condition. The human being who is ruled over and crushed in person and spirit by an Enemy whose only desire is to see you and me dead and destroyed.

If the Devil and death is not real, why did Jesus care enough for you and I to die on a cross, when nobody else would? Passover was the time of sacrifice. A one-year old unblemished lamb or goat was to be slaughtered, roasted, eaten, and it’s blood put on the doorposts of the house. The reason: because God loved Israel. Israel’s obedience showed that they loved God. The result? Life through death; life after death.

Many question whether there is life after death, when you pass from your place on this planet. I can tell you with full assurance that there is life after death; I saw it in my own wife’s eyes as she passed from this earth 27 years ago. Remember it as clear as the day. Jackie was in a drug induced rest when she stirred awake as I told her it was okay for her to go. She opened her eyes, looking to the sky, fixing her eyes on something glorious. She turned to me, locking eyes, she said goodbye, as she returned her focus to the sky and she was gone. It was beautiful, peaceful, and sacred.

Just as Shirley’s passing was. Tom held her hands, talking with her, caring for her, as a husband and wife do. He gently put her hands together on her stomach, and went to make himself breakfast and a coffee. Tom came back and Shirley was gone. Totally at peace, in her beauty, and in God’s grace.

Peace is the common state of those who live in and pass on into the Kingdom of God. Worry and anxiety do not enter the equation, because one’s destination is known and assured because of Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. Jesus said to all who would believe upon Him, and follow Him, My “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). The prophet Isaiah spoke on the peace of God aswell stating, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3).

How do I know that Shirley is with her Lord and Savior? Because she was at peace when she passed, just as my wife Jackie was at peace when she passed. Just as Tom has been at peace with the passing of his beloved. Peace is one’s assurance that one is in the hands of God, cared for by God, loved by God.

Of course, we are sad that Shirley has passed, because we loved her. She impacted us in some way, was Jesus to you in the way she spoke to you, served you, and loved you. She was mom. She was wife. She was God’s gift to each one. We know that one has loved us well, by how sad we are when they are gone. We miss them because we were invested in them, and them in us. Sadness and grief are good things because they indicate that one had value, and we had value with them.

Death was never meant to be. Death was not a state that God created when He made the heavens and the earth, when He created you and me. Death was the state, that man brought upon themselves when we decided to go our own way, to walk away from God and His goodness. Death is paradise lost, due to pursuing our own way, our own agendas, our own ideals and values. Death is with us every day, when we choose to live apart from God, His ways, His ideals, and His values.

Death is not peace, it is the result of the curse of sin, missing the mark of God. The curse of sin is with us unitl we make peace with God, through Jesus the Son, and are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ Spirit comes to live within you and guide you into all things that lead to peace with God. All things that are true and real.

Jesus’ mission was to conquer sin and death by proclaiming and inviting His creation to the Peace of God, Himself. He was the Passover Lamb who, innocent of sin, without blemish, was slaughtered on the cross, so that men and women could have peace with God, through His shed blood. God tells us, that “without the shedding of blood, their is no forgveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Without the shedding of blood, there can be no peace with God, no peace in this world, no peace in our world without a living, believing, trusting relationship with God.

Just as the Israelites applied the blood of the Passover sacrifice to the door frames of their homes to have peace with God, Jesus died and shed His blood so that we might have peace with God in our lives. Jesus said to the disciples, just before He was going to be betrayed and crucified, “The one who believes in Me believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And the one who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me would not remain in darkness.” (John 13:44-46).

To remain in darkness is to have no peace. To come into the light of Jesus is to have peace with God. It is to be glorified as Jesus is glorified; for that is His desire for each one of us, they we would be the joy of His glory. Jesus says, “I have given them the glory You have given Me” (John 17:22). To have the glory of Jesus is to have peace with Jesus. Do I have peace with Jesus? To have the peace of Jesus is to have Jesus in Me and to be one with God the Father. Am I at peace with God the Father? What a great time to make that peace with Him, at a celebration of a woman that was at peace with her Maker, the Creator of us all. May the peace of Jesus be in you, upon you, and stir you, as you reflect upon the life of Shirley, a woman who modeled peace.

“I Am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one…” Real peace is being one with the God who made you, walks with you, and desires you to be with Him. Let your hearts not be troubled. Believe in God and believe in Christ (John 14:1) Amen.