Granny, Family and Salvation

Many of you don't know this, but over the Queen's Jubilee celebration weekend, my Granny, Irene Kieffer passed away suddenly.  The shock of the passing was the suddenness of it.  The day before she was shopping; the next day, she had passed.

My Aunt Christine organized the funeral, which was this past Wednesday.  I have to say that it was lovely.  It was exactly what I would have pictured Granny wanting for her funeral.  First of all, Christine had asked us not to wear black.  Granny had always hated funerals so Chris, didn't want this one to be depressing.  Sad, yes, because we had lost a loved one -- but depressing, no.

The service opened up with a Nat King Cole song, which I learned was one of the Granny's favorite singers.  Please enjoy...

Ahhh, they just don't write them like that any more...

During the appreciation and celebration of Granny's life, Chris read us a short synopsis of her life.  I learned some things about Granny that I found fascinating.  I knew that she had been born in London and had spent her younger years there; what I didn't know was that her family ran an illegal booking shop, which moved into the country when they were forced to leave London due to the bombings during WWII.  Hehe, I never knew that my Granny's family were "gansta."  She was "OG." :)

Chris continued to share Granny's love for family, the outdoors, and people in general.  She shared anecdotes about Granny, my mom, and her brothers.  She shared about how my Granny finally passing her driving test after the fourth try, and how happy she was about that.  Granny was truly a wonderful woman who loved life.  

After a few hymns and more words by the pastor running the service, Chris had closed out the service on a lighter note.

NOTE:  I'm going to see if I can get a copy of Christine's eulogy and post it here.  It truly brought out the person who Granny was.

After the memorial service, we spent the better part of the day reminiscing with the family at my Uncle Robert's house.  My sister brought a box of photos that she had found at Granny's when they were clearing her house.  We spent a good few hours poring through those photos, pointing and laughing at each other when an "embarrassing" younger photo of us cropped up.  It was all in good fun.
 
Due to the death of my Granny and because of the funeral.  Memories came back that I didn't know I had.  All the times I remember about her were good times.  Even though I didn't stay in touch with my British family over the past 25+ years because I was living in the United States, and because I am just horrible with basic correspondence, I still loved her and will miss her dearly.  

One thing that really keeps cropping up in my mind isn't an actual memory of my Granny; it is actually a recollection of a conversation between my Granny and my youngest sister.   Granny was visiting my youngest sister to watch her eldest daughter get confirmed.  On the way home, Granny was talking about confirmations, and asked my sister whether or not she will "go to the same place" that Grandad went if she wasn't confirmed.  My sister responded, "It is what you believe, not a ceremony, that determines where you go afterwards."

My sister probably doesn't know how right she was in that answer.  Where you go, heaven or hell, is definitely determined by what you believe, and not what you do.  

According to Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."  Because we are human, we aren't perfect.  However, since God is perfect, we fall short.  We all have sinned, and will continue to sin, because we are fallen creatures.  God created us to worship him, but since He cannot tolerate sin, and we are sinners, we aren't able gain access to Him in order to worship Him.  Kind of a Catch-22.  Because of our sin, we are cursed to death.  Romans 6:23a states "For the wages of sin is death..."

However, God provided a solution to this curse in the second half of Rom 6:23: "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  How did he grant us this gift?  By providing His perfect son, Jesus, as a living sacrifice for us.  Romans 5:8 states: "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Jesus -- perfect man, wholly God allowed Himself to die so that we don't have to.  This sacrifice is beyond anything we can imagine. Jesus paid for our sins, so we won't have to.  What an awesome gift that is!

While Jesus paying for our sins on the cross is enough, Romans 10:9 says that we have to confess that Jesus is Lord, that He died and was then resurrected again.  "[T]hat if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Romans 8:1 says that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  If we confess our sins and accept what Christ did, then we will have eternal life.  I wholeheartedly believe that.  I really do.

Yes, I know that I'm far from being a perfect Christian, and am probably not the best witness in the world for Christ.  But I continue asking the Holy Spirit to give me the words and actions to be that witness.  And I wished I was around to explain to my Granny that so she wouldn't have any doubt about that.  I wasn't.  I do know that God is faithful and is able to reveal Himself to anyone who is looking for the true answer.  I believe that Granny was, I believe that the Lord revealed Himself to her, and I believe that she accepted.  Because of that, I believe that I'll see her again in heaven.

Now, my prayer is that the Lord will give me the boldness, words and actions to help me bring any of my family members who don't know Him into His fold.