Granny Thoughts

Tomorrow I will be conducting the funeral for Marceliene Burns, who has been my mother-in-law for the past 42 years.
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When it became apparent that Granny was not going to survive the latest ordeal, I wondered what I would say at the memorial service. Then I became afraid that perhaps I wouldn’t be the one asked to say anything. So I’m grateful that you have allowed me these few moments & I hope that I can represent Granny and each of you well. I decided on two points from Scripture that I wanted to make today. One of them is Matthew 10:42.

"And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."

If I’ve ever known a cup of cold water Christian, it was Marceliene Burns. She never set out to do some grand project or to make a big name for herself, but she always did the little things that needed to be done, or even that didn’t need to be done but that she wanted to do for someone, that fulfill the scripture so perfectly. I want to read to you some of the memories that I received from the family members over the last couple days that demonstrate what I’m trying to say about Granny.

When I sat down to jot some thoughts that I wanted to remember today, I remembered our first meeting in 1966. Over Christmas break I went to visit the girl I had met at college. I thought about hating her spaghetti sauce, but eating two plates anyway. And I recalled the phone call we made on our way to my parents’ home from our elopement. We decided to let Marcie know what we had done.

Of course I recalled her infectious laugh. I was easy to identify her in a crowd by that laugh. She even pulled a joke on my first born, her first grandchild two nighta before she passed away, despite being very weak. (The best mother-in-law joke I ever heard, Granny told me)

In the past eight or nine years, Granny had been able to get all of us together once a month for a Bible study at her house. It would be hard to overstate how important those family gatherings to study the Bible were to Granny. She wanted more than anything else for all of us to know the Bible and love the God of the Bible, to surrender our lives to God so that we will be able to spend eternity with her in heaven. Her husband, Chuck would sit and listen and hardly ever comment. Then came the day Chuck called and asked me to baptize him. (Days don't get much better than that one.)

And that's where the other passage that I wanted to share with you came to my mind. It's from Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son. Both Granny and I could identify with that young man. In her early days, Granny made some decisions that were not in keeping with what she knew to be right, as did I. in my younger days. And we both came to understand how open armed our God is to receive us home when we repent. It was her gratitude for God's mercy and love that motivated her to be the great Christian lady she's been over the last several decades. And she knew it was never too late to respond to that loving God while you still have breath. It wasn't too late for Chuck in his 70s, and it's not too late for you today.

For several years after she retired, Granny spent much of her tie volunteering for the Host program, a reading/mentor program in the local middle school. There are no doubt thousands of other things that I could say today about the little ways that Granny touched our lives and influenced us for good. Maybe that's why President Bush 41 recognized her as one of his Thousand Points of Light.

When my kids were little, she took them to the Star Wars movies, and lately her younger son, Alan, and Granny had movie nights each week in these last months. Granny loved movies, the last one we got to see with her was Wall-E. She really enjoyed that outing, and no doubt it will make Wall-E be one of my favorite movies for a long time.

Like all of you, I received countless cups of cold water from the hand of Marceliene Burns. Maybe that's why last week in the hospital I realized what I wanted to say today about her, about how I would depict her, because the very last thing I got to do Marcie Burns, my favorite mother-in-law, was to give her a cup of cold water before I left the hospital.

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