Through My Kitchen Window

This past week I wrote an obituary. I have written many different types of pieces in my life as a writer but this was the first obituary I ever wrote. You see this past week my mother in law passed away at the age of 82. Her name was Margaret Conant Michael and my husband, John was the second of her four children. As I wrote the information down about her life, it occurred to me that the facts don’t really tell the whole story of a person. How do you convey a life in a few short words that run in the obituary column of a newspaper?

Sure, I mentioned her honors; she was a Trustee Emerita of Brown University and a recipient of the prestigious Brown Bear Award. She served on the President’s Advisory Board of World Vision, and was a member of the international women’s business organization known as the Committee of 200. And I told that after her husband’s tragic death in a plane crash in 1972, she became the sole owner and president of Michael-Walters Industries, Inc., a successful small business providing lubricants to the coal industry which she and her husband David started in 1964. And I told that she was active in her church teaching Sunday School and getting enthusiastically involved in the youth ministry when her children were teens.

But that just doesn’t really tell her story. It doesn’t show the love she had for her late husband whom she met during Freshman week at Brown University when they were both Freshmen. He was a Christian young man who fell in love with her but did not want to marry an unbeliever so he shared his faith with her and took her to a Billy Graham crusade where she accepted Christ. He was a man whom she loved till the day she died even though she was widowed at the tender age of 42 and lived another 40 years without him.

It doesn’t tell how she kept the family together and bravely ran her husband’s business in his absence, keeping her head high and her spirits up. It doesn’t tell her faith which was a rock to her in difficult times. It doesn’t tell how every year she used to sprinkle candy and nuts in a line from the Christmas stockings to the front door and just outside and would then tell her children that she walked in on Santa startling him so he ran out the door as fast as he could dropping the goodies behind in his hurry. Or how she led the family in a small parade beating pots and pans around her house at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve every year, or how her eyes twinkled when she sang silly songs which she loved to sing even in her old age in the nursing home.

No, a short obituary just doesn’t get the story of a life told really. So those of us who remember keep her story alive in our hearts.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalms 116:5

Easter

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord. And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.’” Luke 24:1-6

He is Risen!

Rev. Adediran had been a pastor for 30 years when he came to Oke Lerin Baptist Church in the Nigerian city where my parents served as missionaries. The members of this church got a bargain! They hired Rev. Adediran for less money than they otherwise would have paid because he was retired. Retired or not, he served at Oke Lerin - for another 29 years! Rev. Adediran was in the ministry for 59 years and only served two churches.

When his wife died, all who knew them suffered a great loss. My parents attended Mrs. Adediran’s funeral. Inside the church, a crowd had gathered. Some were sitting in pews while others stood around in small groups talking quietly. Church members were there as well as other people from the town. My mother began to cry as she entered the church.

Seeing my parents from a distance, Rev. Adideran approached them quickly. With urgency in his voice, he told my mother, “My sister, do not cry! The people will see you! Some here are not believers. We have said that death is different for believers. We have a hope! My wife is in a better place. She is with her Savior! You and I know that - but if the people see your tears, they will think we do not really believe what we tell them. They will think we have no hope.”

But we have a hope! Our hope is in Jesus. Praise God – the tomb was empty!!

“The perishable must put on imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortal…then will come about the saying, ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”(1st Corinthians 15: 53, 54b NASB)