For Me To Live Is Christ And To Die Is Gain

Funeral for George Hafele

Today we gather to celebrate the life and future of Mr. George Hafele. Times like these are never fun. But honestly, my grief today is not for George because he is in a better place, but rather for those of us who are left behind. We are the ones left with the void. The hole that he once filled in our lives.

This past December we had a lot of broken balloons out at Christmas in the Country. This year, we had some Campers on Mission helping us there. They were making balloon animals for the children and such.

What happens when you mix children with balloons and hay? Yeah. Exactly, we had broken balloons all over our place.

What happens when you break a balloon? It immediately explodes, the air leaves it, and all you have left behind is the shell. The remains of what the air used to be in.

What we have left of Mr. George is nothing more than a broken balloon. The remains of what George used to be in. Now, just like the air in a balloon, George has gone.

That’s why Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5,

> 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 “For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

That’s why, when our children are young, we teach them, Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take. We teach them from an early age that there is a difference between what a person lives in and what a person is.

Before we go any further, let’s pray.

- Pray

- Read 23rd Psalm

David said he could walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, because the Shepherd was with him.

Oh, how many people love this Psalm who do not know or love the Shepherd. My friend, the only way you can have that comfort as you walk through that valley is to have a relationship with the Shepherd.

Do you know Jesus Christ as your your Lord and Savior? Have you established that relationship? Have you admitted your need for a Savior, asked Jesus to forgive you, and asked Him to be your Lord and Savior?

George did a long time ago. I’m sorry, but when I think of George meeting Mrs. Kit for the first time in a Lutheran church confirmation class way back in 1955, way up in that frozen northern tundra, the opening statement from Star Wars keeps coming to mind, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away.”

Now mind you, Mrs. Kit was just a babe at the time, and it was several years before she was old enough for him to ask her out. But they have known each other for that long, and Mr. George has known the Lord for at least that long.

It is sad when I have to do a memorial service for someone who didn’t know the Lord because there is no comfort I can give, no promises I can make to the family. I am so glad Mrs. Kit and Mr. George took the counsel of the wisest man who has ever lived when he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “So remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”

Oh my friends, life is so short, and eternity is so long, we cannot, we dare not, treat salvation, and the future with brevity or callousness.

Jesus died but He rose again, and we shall as well. If we die with Him, we shall also be raised with Him. Death is our entrance into glory. Paul expressed it victoriously in the great resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians 15.

- Read 1 Corinthians 15:20-25, 50-58.

The story is told of a dad and his son who were driving down the road, when they discovered a bee was in the car with them. The son panicked and started crying, “a bee, a bee.” The dad calmly stuck up his hand and caught the bee in the palm of his hand. After a minute or so the dad opened his hand and the bee flew out.