Jean's Funeral

Preface: I debated to post this for a while, but I decided that it was good and worth while, but a bit of a tear jerker.

For every season there is a reason, a time for everything under Heaven. Sometimes though seasons seem to linger for all too long. The winter tends to be long for all of us, especially for the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

In John we see a man who has been unable to go into the pool for he is limited to his mat. His season had lasted all too long and for Jesus it was time for this to change. For this man had experienced weeping and to mourning, he did not know anything but his disability. Yet, in John, we see Jesus call out to the man “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured, he did exactly what Jesus declared.

This is what we believe, that the Bible has inspiring moments for us all to hold onto, we hold these things to be fact and written by God. Still, in these times, the seasons of death, crying, and morning—What reason is there to believe that Jesus cares? What reason is there to trust in the greater season of Christmas? Why would we have any reason to hope?

Coming home to be back in Colorado, these questions fueled my mind. I see seasons as well as people come and go. I come in front of Jesus to tell him that we as a people seem to be invalid, I tell the Lord that there is no one to help us: We are all dieing.

In this season though, we have experienced the loss of a mother, a sister, a grandmother, and a friend. For most of us we were a part of the whirlwind that was Jean going into the hospital, her fast fade, and finally the dreaded phone call of her dieing.

But for one of us, as I have found, that one was given reason to hope.

As the Bible fell open Tom read John 5:1-9 in Jean’s last moments. Let me, though, do my best to describe not what was read, but what was truly going on:

Some time later, Tom went up to the Wray Hospital where people who are blind, lame, or paralyzed go to get well. There, Tom met with Grandma Jean who had been sick for sometime. Her body failing, her mind lost deep within the sorrow of loosing both her parents and her beloved dancing partner in only the past few years. Tom thinks in his mind “Don’t you want to get well?”. Jean doesn’t reply, she is too tired—not that she might sleep; but simply tired of trying, tired of hoping—simply tired of living. Then Tom reads Jesus reply to the invalid, to all of the people in this world, but specifically to Jean. Jesus says: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

As Tom looked up Jean has passed, but he only sees Jean’s body. In reality, the reality that we will never understand which is Heaven, our Jean at once was cured. She picked up her mat and walked right into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is there, in the arms of Jesus, Jean is experiencing an everlasting season. This season is one of planting, healing, laughing, building, but beyond any of these—dancing.

As you go forth, may you know that beyond the times of dieing, there is healing. Beyond the times of weeping, there is laughing. But, beyond anything else—know that beyond mourning there is dancing. May we all go forth to the Elks and dance with the joy that only comes from Jesus Christ.