Grandpa

In preparing for Grandpa's funeral I wanted to take down the Easter decorations that were in the church sanctuary. I especially didn't think the two banners reading "See what the Lord is doing" and "It is marvelous in our eyes" (from Psalm 118) were appropriate for a funeral.

Then I read a blog on the phrase "It's a God Thing". The author points out that people often refer to good things as "a God thing", but forget that bad things are also "God things".

I also read something that Grandpa wrote just after his wife's death in 1980. He said that he and Martha had been praying for a miracle to happen, that she would be healed. But, they also prayed that if the miracle wasn't to be in her life, that some miracle would happen in someone's life as a result of her struggle with breast cancer. After her death Grandpa realized that the miracle they had prayed for had happened - he felt the the miracle occurred in himself because he was at peace with her death and he became closer to God.

Suddenly I found the banners to be most appropriate for this funeral. Grandpa's life was pretty marvelous. The love and support of the huge Goerzen/Friesen extended family that took up half the church pews was pretty marvelous. The way that Grandpa's four children with very different personalities could come together and make so many difficult decisions in a short time was pretty marvelous. The fact that several of use who are very allergic to flowers could make it through the 90 minute service was pretty marvelous. And, the monster cookies served in his honor were pretty marvelous, too!