Editor’s note: My wife’s sister Grace passed away last Sunday. Read the obituary. Here’s the eulogy from the memorial service on Wednesday.
Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
….
Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all.”
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31:10-12, 25-31
Last Sunday at 5:15 am, Grace Hunter, who had been unresponsive for a day or so, tugged on her husband Mike’s hand and then was herself pulled into the eternal rest for which her body had long yearned.
They had been married for 55 of her 76 years, and she had honored her calling as a wife and mother for all that time. As Proverbs 31:28 says of the virtuous woman, “Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her.”
You don’t have to talk to Mike for long to sense his deep regard and love for this remarkable woman. They had, alternately, taken care of each other in sickness and in health, as they promised long ago.
Her kids—Darcy, Robert, Brent, and Rachel—will not say she was perfect. But they will say she was compassionate and generous. She and Mike were sacrificial in their care for their children, helping them through life’s financial and emotional challenges.
Both Mike and the kids would also say she was funny. Everyone would say that. Grace had a way of turning things on their side and seeing them from a different angle. And it would make you laugh. Everyone laughed around Grace, not necessarily because she told jokes but because she saw things with hope and humor.
Proverbs 31:25 says such a woman can “laugh at times to come, “ or in some translations, “she smiles at the future.” you would have to be pretty tough if Grace could not make you laugh or smile. Like Sarah whom the Apostle Peter says hoped in God, Grace could “laugh at times to come” because she trusted the Lord, like the holy women of old (1 Peter 3). Proverbs 31 describes such a woman in these ways: “Strength and honor were her clothing.” “She opened her mouth with wisdom.” “On her tongue was the law of kindness.” “She trusted the Lord.”
Her faith in God began when she was 6 or 7 years old, and it sustained her through life’s joys and challenges, including three strokes and many other heartaches. You can leaf through her Bible, with its marginal notes and quotes in her perfect penmanship, and see evidence of someone who knew and loved the Word of God and who knew and loved the God of the Word.
For this reason, we have confidence that she is now resting and rejoicing in the presence of Jesus. She knew him, and she would want you to know him, too.
As we celebrate her life today, we also celebrate the certainty that she is now perfectly whole, strengthened, and nourished by her heavenly Father. A plaque on the wall beside her chair quotes Isaiah 40:
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
For a long time, Grace has waited for this deliverance. For a long time, she has anticipated this homecoming. And the Lord has renewed her strength. We can imagine her now, after over a decade of decreased mobility and stability, not walking but running into the arms of Jesus.
The word renewed here means exchanged in the original Hebrew. And there are so many exchanges to celebrate today. God has exchanged her frailty for his strength, her imperfections for his righteousness, and her soiled robes for his spotless ones.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And blessed be the name of Christ Jesus through whose death these exchanges were secured and through whose resurrection we gather today in the hope of eternal life.
Today, we grieve the loss of a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend. And we will grieve tomorrow and for weeks, months, or even years. But Scripture says we sorrow not as others who have no hope.
As Grace knew well, it is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning (Lamentations 3).
Remember this when you get up tomorrow without Grace or someone else you love. His mercies are new every morning, sufficient for your need. And for your grief.
the daysman 