Eulogy Clatie Nichols

Clatie Nichols

December 3, 2005

Although Clatie Nichols made his entrance into the world on February 3rd, 1920 in the huge suburb of Country Park outside of Little Rock Arkansas, God had taken note of his presence in heaven a long time before that.

For the Scriputes tell us in Psalm 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

In 1919, While the world was busy wrapping up the affairs of WWI and the KKK was plotting a revival, God was deciding to make a mighty man. In our Old Testament we read of three of David’s mighty men. What made them mighty was their willingness to give their all for a cause.

When God had in mind a mighty man, God was not contemplating one who could slay great numbers of men in battle. God was creating a man who could slay just one man in order to become a mighty. You see a mighty from God’s perspective is somewhat different from our own. God wanted a mighty man, one whose children would rise up and call him blessed and be able to say I thank God for my father and his example.

A mighty man would be one whose grandchildren would rise up and stick out their shoulders to the world proclaiming that’s my grandfather and would be inspired to write a poem entitled A Super Black Man. A mighty man would be one who could forsake all else to be true to his vows that he made when he said in sickness and in health till death do us part. You see the one man a mighty man has to slay is himself. He has to forget about pleasing himself and attach his purpose to the lives of others. For Jesus said, greater love has no one than this, but that he should lay down his life for his friend.

One of the most encouraging things about walking with God is knowing that God has a plan and a purpose for your life. Although we are under the illusion that our lives are going to go on and on, God tells us from the start, that our days are numbered, and to use wisdom with how we spend them. We receive 25,567 days if we lived to be 70. There is a day out there on the calendar in which we shall all surely die We can be assured that one day we will stand before God , and we will be judged for the way in which we have used our days. Have you thought recently about how many days you have left.

God is never going to ask us about how somebody else used up their days. We hear all the time about the person who will not go to church because he or she does not want to be in the church with the hypocrites. Not only do they fail to understand hypocrites need the message of the gospel, but God is not impressed with their decision to cut Him out of their lives. God is only going to ask us to answer for us, because we do not all start at the same point in life, nor do we have the same opportunities, gifts, talents, or skills.

God created each one of us to be us, in our relationship to Him. He never intended for any of us to remain as we are, but for all of us to be changed by the power of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus put it this way, “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

We are celebrating today, because Clatie Nichols entered into a personal relationship with Jesus, and allowed Jesus to live in and through him before he left this world. When we look at Clatie’s life, two of the words that have to come to mind are persistence and perseverance.

He was a hard working man, laying down his life to take care of his family by often working two jobs. As a family of 8 the Nichols, may not have had the best things of life, but they did have the best things in life. They had love, they had care, and they had parents who loved each other and them. God blessed Annie Lee and Clayton with six kids. Five boys and one girl, or a beautiful single rose among five thorns as Yvonne likes to describe her and her brothers.