Eulogy J. Green

Eulogy J. Green

John 14:1-14:8

It was on August 30, 1993, that God decided, this is the day to send the world another gift to touch the lives of others. No doubt his Mom was the first to feel the full impact of that gift as she suffered labor pains. But at the birth of her child, Jawaan, her heart was filled with joy at the birth of a beautiful healthy baby boy. No one knew what potential she holding in her arms on that day as she cuddled little Jawaan . Her thoughts that day were on being the best Mom she could be.

We all enter this world as children of God whether we are aware of it or not. Whether we believe in God or not, God has a claim upon each and every one of our lives. God has a plan and a purpose for each of us, because in our unique ways all of us have been created with gifts, with talents and with skills. How we choose to use them will make all the difference in this brief period between birth and death that we call life. One day, each of us will be called back to the God who created us to give an account for the life that we have lived. God has given us the ability to make choices for ourselves. Even though God loves us all tremendously, God will never force Himself upon us. He waits for us to turn to follow him.

Jawaun entered this world and became a son, a nephew, a brother, a cousin, a friend, a homie, a worker, and a child of God created in the image of God. He has made the journey from the heavens to the earth and to the heavens once again as we all will one day do.

It’s never easy saying goodbye to someone we love and care about. God shares in our suffering and grief in that the Lord knows the loss that we feel. Jesus the very Son of God, Himself cried in the bible with two of his friends, Mary and Martha, in the loss of their brother. They told him, “Lord if you would have been here, our brother would not have died.” We all would like to undo death or stop it from coming altogether.

But death is something that is as much a part of living as everything else is. It is not something that has to be feared. Jesus takes away some of the sting of death by telling those who choose for follow him. Jesus also said, “let not your heart be troubled, for you believe in God, then believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, and I am going away to prepare a place for you.”

Some ask “if God is loving, why is there death.” I see it as, because God is loving there is death. Can you imagine what a burden it would be to have to live life forever in the way we know it here on earth?

What it would be like to forever have pain in our bodies for hundreds of year, to have unforgiveness in our hearts year after year ,to be mad at people for centuries, to be addictied to drugs for decades, to be in bitterness in our soul, or to be stuck at the bottom of poverty forever. God has seen all the evil, and the madness, and the pain that goes on in the world, and God has determined that at some point this must stop. That point is death.

We want to think that all of us are entitled to a certain number of days, weeks, months and years. We all expect to die of old age. This makes Jawaun’s death at age 19 even more difficult to bear. How many of us here at near that same age or even younger? But there is no such entitlement to a specific number of days found in the Bible. People of all ages die everyday. That is why we should treasure each other while we can. The Bible encourages us in Psalm 90:12 (NIV) Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. The message of the Bible is that death is always close at hand, walking by us like a constant companion.

Some of us are alive today, simply because of God’s grace and God’s mercy. We know we were in some situations, some accidents, some places, and we were doing some things that should have taken us out of this world, but God had other plans for our lives. God is the only reason we are still alive to tell about what almost happened.

Did you know that the Bible teaches that while you were in your mother’s womb, God had something special in mind for you? Did you know that most of us, never get around to discovering just how precious we are in the eyes of God? We’re not precious because we’re so good. We’re precious because of what God knows that He can make of us. For all of us were made in the image of God. But not all of us discover the benefits that come from being made in God’s image.