Alvin Smith COL

Celebration of Life Alvin Smith

Hello, My name is Christian. I’m a pastor at Hammond Bay Baptist Church and it is my honor to have been asked to guide today’s celebration of life for Alvin. Thank you all for coming to celebrate and remember him.

​​We gather today with heavy hearts. Twenty nine years feels far too short. There are moments in life when words feel inadequate — and this is one of them.

We are here to remember Alvin Smith. We are here to grieve. We are here to give thanks. And we are here to cling to hope.

Scripture tells us in Romans 12:15 to “weep with those who weep.” Today we weep. But we do not weep without hope. We gather as people who believe that death does not have the final word

Let’s pray.

God, we give thanks for the life of Alvin. It is painful to gather today, but As we gather, we remember all the good times his friends and family spent with him. We cherish how much love and laughter he brought into our lives. We commit this service to be one that celebrates Alvin. Amen.

Alvin Smith lived twenty nine years. And in those twenty nine years, he left fingerprints everywhere.

He was a son. (Family member to all of you back in the Bahamas) A friend. (To many friends in the US) A young man still becoming who God made him to be.

There is something uniquely painful about losing someone so young. At twenty nine, life feels like it is just beginning. There are dreams not yet fulfilled, plans not yet made, milestones not yet reached.

And that is why this hurts so deeply.

But even in twenty nine short years, Alvin’s life mattered. His laugh mattered. His presence mattered. His kindness mattered. The way he showed up mattered.

(Orange paper here)

We celebrate that Alvin was not an accident. Psalm 139 tells us he was fearfully and wonderfully made. God knew him. God saw him. God loved him.

Death feels wrong because it is wrong.

The Bible teaches that death is an enemy. Jesus Himself wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. He didn’t say, “This is fine.” He wept. He was angry at death.

Grief is not weakness. It is love with nowhere to go.

And today we allow ourselves to feel it.

You may feel sadness. You may feel confusion. You may feel anger. You may feel numb.

God is not threatened by any of that.

Psalm 56 says God collects our tears in a bottle. That means not one tear shed for Alvin is unnoticed.

As we grieve… we enter a space in time that is not ordinary. Whether we recognize this or not, this is a sacred time – a time that holds potential for healing and insight and understanding that does not come readily in day to day life. Our consciousness is heightened.

Life is brief, Psalm 39.5 states:

Every human being stands as only a vapour.

It’s a reminder for us to hold our loved ones close as we grieve together for Alvin.

Jesus promised this:

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

When we express our sorrow together.. the very process invites us into a space of healing of sharing this burden.

With death we become more aware that we live in fragile human bodies. We may come to know a heightened consciousness of what is precious and what is true. Indeed with the passing of a loved one, like Alvin, we encounter a deeper sense of the importance of our loved ones. We grieve because we have loved them so much.

In this space and time…. We experience a sacred time. It is here that we need hope and we need each other, the famous Psalm 23 gives the promise of comfort:

23

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Yes, 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.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

Forever.

That’s what the promises of God can do… restore our soul in the midst of the grief we now face.

When a young adult dies, all of us struggle with the purpose and will of God. Every person has a purpose in the divine design. Marshall Shelly and his wife lost a child shortly after birth. In writing about that brief life and their grief, he said, “Why did God create a child to live two minutes? He didn’t. He did not create Mandy (their child) to live two minutes or two years… God created Many for eternity. He created each of us for eternity.”

And yet we long for the day that there is no more pain and death and sadness. Jesus promised that one day when he restores all things that:

Revelation 21:4 (NIV): "'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

In our time left, give a moment of silence?

Words of Tribute time:

(step back in)

Thank you all for being here and making Alvin’s Celebration of Life meaningful and important.

In closing….

Through Jesus, we learned that God loves us beyond measure, that he is with us in sorrow, and that he is always there if we want to turn to him for comfort, healing, forgiveness and guidance.

Jesus declared about himself that:

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8.12 NIV

THis young man, Alvin, belongs to God. Today we move one step further in our grief, releasing his hands because God has grasped them over yonder, and he will never let Alvin go.

The lyrics of the song he loved the opening verse went as:

I'm not forsaken, never alone The God of Heaven calls me His own He's not just seated, upon the throne I know He's right here, inside my home I've got a treasure here in my heart And in my weakness, it won't depart I have a Savior who will abide He's not just with me, He lives inside

Join with me as a close our time in a word of prayer:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life that Alvin lived. We ask for your amazing peace to surround us in powerful ways as we grieve together over the pain we are in. We pray for moments of hope of being rejoined with Alvin again one day. We thank you for your love for us.

We thank you for your comfort as we leave this time and we pray this in Your precious name Jesus, amen.