A Beautiful Lady

Funeral for Clara Wagoner

3/23/2008

Think about the changes that have occurred during Mrs. Wagoner’s lifetime. Portions of this were read when Mrs. Wagoner came to church on her 100th birthday. I believe that was the last time she was able to attend.

The year was 1905!

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A 3 minute call from Denver to New York City cost 11 dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the US, and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in the US was 22 cents per hour.

The average US worker made between $200 to $400 per year.

An accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the US took place at home.

Ninety percent of all US doctors had no college education.

Sugar cost 4 cents a pound.

Eggs were 14 cents a dozen.

Coffee was 15 cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

The American flag had 45 stars.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

2 out of every 10 US adults couldn’t read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire US.

Read 1 Peter 3:1-6. Unusual way to begin a funeral message, but Mrs. Wagoner was unique. I want to say that Mrs. Wagoner was a beautiful woman.

What? Did you not see her over the past few years? Yes, but lets look at this Biblically: (1 Sam 16:7 KJV) for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

The NIV version says of 1 Peter 3:3-4- Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, but from the inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.

Thesis: I want to talk about 3 ways that Mrs. Wagoner was beautiful.

1. Her prayer life.

A. I remember it quite well. It was late in the evening and I was at the hospital. Go up and see Mrs. Wagoner. I’m going to miss that. I expected her to be asleep. She wasn’t. I came inside her room and she was speaking. I thought someone was there visiting with her. No one was in her room. I didn’t announce myself until a few minutes went by. After listening, I knew that she was praying. I finally announced myself and I asked her what she was doing. She said that she was praying. I asked her what she was praying about. She was praying for her son Carol. We visited for a while and I took her hand and said that I had to go. “Say a prayer for Carol.”

B. What a joy to be able to spend time with the Lord in prayer. These past several years she has had much time to do that. It helped her to get through! And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known! From what we know she no longer has to pray because she sees face to face.

B. I do not believe that she was just praying for her children, her grandchildren, her great grandchildrens physical needs, but also their deeper, spiritual needs.

C. Augustine credits his mother for leading him to Jesus Christ. He was a notorious sinner and this is what he says of his mother after becoming a Christian in his book Confessions. “You (God) drewest my soul out of that profound darkness, my mother, thy faithful one, weeping to Thee for me, more than mothers weep the bodily deaths of their children. For she, by that faith and spirit which she had from Thee, discerned the death wherein I lay, and Thou heardest her, O Lord; Thou heardest her, and despisedst not her tears, when streaming down, they watered the ground under her eyes in every place where she prayed, yea Thou heardest her.”

D. If I could hear my mother pray again

How sweet and happy seem, those days of which I dream

When memory recalls them now and then

And with what rapture sweet, my weary heart would beat

If I could hear my mother pray again