A Shinning Example of a Life Lived Well

TEXT: Exodus 34:27-35

TOPIC: Emmett Harrison, a Shining Example of a Life Lived Well

Funeral Eulogy for Emmett Harrison, September 8, 2006

Pastor Bobby Earls

Let me begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to the family and especially to Ms. Margaret for the privilege of standing before you on this day. As a pastor, I recognize this time to be one of the most precious moments a family will ever experience. To be asked to share remarks regarding your beloved husband and father, grandfather, and great grandfather, is indeed an honor, and one I do not take lightly. I feel privileged.

Far too many times I have had to say as a pastor, I feel somewhat slighted for not having had the distinction of knowing Emmett through the years, and in the way that so many of you knew him. I’ve come to the conclusion that that is why heaven will last throughout eternity. There are so many wonderful people, like Emmett Harrison, that not just I but all the population of Heaven will want to know. Together we can spend all the time we’ve known on this earth, getting reacquainted in Heaven. We can spend all the time we want there and then, reviewing all the details of a life lived so well.

My biblical text is a unique one befitting the man before us today. In Exodus, the 34th chapter beginning with verse 27 we read “27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. 35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.

Three times in this well-known passage of Scripture we are told that Moses’ face shone brightly, reflecting the radiance of the presence of the Lord God in his life.

My message for the family and for those of you here today is this, “Emmett Harrison, a Shining Example of a Life Lived Well.”

Emmett so lived his life as a Christian within the community, as a Godly Father within his family and as a loving husband within his marriage that he stands now as a shining example for us all.

Stories: his shining face

His marriage of 65 years, my prayer for our love to be like Emmett and Margaret Harrison’s love