From my funeral sermon for Grandpa Harold, 1989.
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78 years, two months, and 26 days; those are the words I just read in the obituary. A good, long and full life, we might say. I, for one, hope to get 78 years. But if I do get to be 78 years old, will I then say, “That’s enough,” or will I want more? If I am still healthy, I will probably want to stick around a bit longer.
I know Harold would have liked to live longer. Now that he was completely retired, he had plans for this summer. He would say, “Muriel and I are going to get in the car and just drive, take our time, and visit all the relatives.” Even last Friday, the day before he died, he felt good, and spoke again of doing that.
But time is always getting away on us; always interfering with our plans. Time is always slipping away. Once again, the summer is going by all too fast. It is almost half over. And for the kids, each day of summer goes by too quickly. Even after fifteen hours of playing outside, kids still dread hearing their parent’s call, “Time to come in now.” The swift passage of time is always ruining things for us, whether it means the end of a day of play, or the end of a life when you still had plans.
Gerhard Frost was one of my seminary professors, and he was a poet. He would have been the same age as Harold, and he died about a year ago. Shortly before he died, Frost wrote a poem called “He Knows.” In this poem Frost makes some of these comparisons. He compares his childhood frustrations with the end of the day, to his old age frustrations with the approaching end of life.
“He Knows” by Gerhard Frost
‘Time to come in now,’ said my mother’s loving voice
In the darkening dusk of a long-ago day.
In my barefoot, carefree days of play.
No harshness was in her voice, but firmness and care
The loving care of a mother,
Even though she knew how much we’d like to play.
‘Time to come in now,’ I seem to hear God say
In the darkening hours of my life’s sunset day.
God knows how much I want to stay.
Mothers know that the time comes when children must come in, and as adults we know that is not so bad. The night will soon be over and the next day will be here, and the play can continue. But it seems frustrating to the child to have to end the game and go in, especially when some of the other kids can go on playing. The night ahead can seem so long, and the next day so far away.
God knows that for us this life must end. The time will come for you and I, as it came for Harold, when God says, “Time to come in now.” But like children, as Frost says in the last line, “God knows how much I want to stay.” And that’s good. That displays a love of God’s gift of life. But just like children on a summer evening, we must remember that after death, the night is short, and the new dawn of resurrection will soon come, and we will be awake again.
Gerhard Frost wrote this about his poem: “We are surrounded by gentle reminders of our mortality—the march of the seasons, the changing colors, and the falling leaves; it all reminds us that for us too, there is a time to ‘come in’ from the work and play of our short lives. Whether we are young or old, our times are in God’s hands, and we are wise to leave them there.”
In I Corinthians 15 Paul says: “Listen, I tell you a mystery… We will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised… Thanks be to God!”
Death is the last enemy we must face. But because of Christ’s resurrection victory, death gets only a moment of power. Only the ‘twinkling of an eye’ in comparison to the eternity we will enjoy in God’s presence.
The night will soon be over and the day comes. We love this life. “God knows I want to stay.” But believers in Jesus face death with hope, knowing that our Lord has said to us (John 14): “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you. And I will come back and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be also.”
Harold lived a long and full life, and we are left with many good memories. He will be missed—his jokes, his songs, and his stories of the old days and the old-timers. He had some health issues in the last couple of years, but for most of his life he enjoyed good health, and that is a blessing.
When the Lord tells us it’s time to come in, we have to go, and it is a sad day for us who are left behind. But we have much to be thankful for today. We are thankful for Harold’s life and the time we shared with him, and, for our own lives. These are all gifts of God to us; gifts not to be taken for granted, but to be treasured and cherished. And, we give thanks for God’s gift of eternal life, and the family reunion that will take place there in God’s home.
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (II Corinthians 9:15). Amen.
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Let us pray: Abide with us, O Lord, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. Abide with us, for the days are hastening on, and we hasten with them, and our life is short and transient as a dream. Abide with us, for we are weak and helpless, and if thou abide not with us, we perish by the way. Abide with us, until the morning light of our resurrection day, when we shall abide forever with thee. Amen. –James Burns
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