Eloise Fergurson by Rick Gillespie-Mobley
Psalm 97:1-7,11 John 14:1-6
Eloise Fergurgson
On September 27, 1920, God decided to give the world a special gift in the form of a tiny little girl by the name of Eloise in a small section of place called Mississippi. The world had no idea at that time of the significance that little black baby girl was going to have on the lives of others. Only God could see the incredible power to love and to give that God had placed in that little girl who was so precious in His eyes.
Things were not always easy for Eloise as she grew up and passed through life. She encountered some things in her life that could either make her bitter or make her better. We are here tonight to celebrate because she made the choice to become better. Your negative circumstance do not have to destroy your desire for greatness. Eloise aspired for greatness by applying two of Jesus’ statements to her life.
In the bible when Jesus was just a few days away of giving up his life in death, so that we could today have eternal life, Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment of a new rule. He said, “I am giving you a new commandment, you are to love each other, as I have loved you.” He also told them a while later, “there is no greater love you can have, than to lay down your life for your friend.”
Eloise gave her life seeking to love others, especially children, and she chose on many occasions to lay down her life by putting the needs of others ahead of her own. For many who did not know what it was to have a loving mom, they found it in her. For those who did not have anyone to help with their kids in a time of need, they found it in her. For that one who did not have a winter coat or a pair of shoes, or a shoulder to cry on, Eloise made these things a reality by the giving of herself. She allowed herself to be so loving, that she was the whole community’s grandma.
We do not know when a simple act of kindness on our part is going to have a lasting influence or lesson on those who are with us. One day Eloise and Billy were on a city transit bus. A woman and her child got on the bus. But they did not have the money they needed to pay the fare. The bus driver was insisting that they would have to get off the bus. Whereas some of us would have said, “they knew they didn’t have the money to get on, why are they wasting our time”, Eloise took out her money, gave it to Billy, and told him to go quickly to the driver and pay the fare for them to stay on the bus.” In that moment in time, Eloise taught him the meaning of compassion that stayed with him all his life.
When you read the bible, you discover that Jesus cared greatly for those whom others didn’t think that highly of. Jesus loved people whom others had pushed aside. If you feel pushed aside, I want you to know that Jesus already cares about you tonight. No group was pushed aside any further in the first century than were children. The disciples wanted to stop people from bringing children to Jesus. But Jesus told them, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
That same love that Jesus had for children, was birthed in the heart of Eloise. Here is a woman who had no children, who has had more children wanting to call her mom and grandma, than most mothers and grandmothers will ever know. She poured her heart into kids. There are use to be kids all over the city who can testify how she touched their lives with her love. There are parents who can testify, when they were not eligible for vouchers, Eloise would say bring the kids on anyways and we will work something out. She was the community safety net for our children, long before the government knew what the word safety net actually meant.
While others talk about it taking a village to raise a child, she was already doing it. The family kids and the kids in the neighborhood wanted to go and stay at her house. They just enjoyed being around her. One of the reasons is that she was a positive speaking person. You didn’t hear her putting people down with her words. She spoke with kindness in her voice. You could talk to her without feeling she was going to be judgmental. You knew she would be honest with you.
She was a one woman jail diversionary program in the community without knowing that’s what she was doing by having an open door policy. When you got a positive place to be, it keeps you from getting into things that will ruin your life. By spoiling the kids with love, she let them know they were somebody. They didn’t have to join a gang to feel like family.
One day Jesus had five loaves and two fish available to him and there were some 5,000 men plus women and children who were looking to eat. Jesus looked toward heaven, gave thanks and started breaking those fish and loaves of bread. In addition to everybody eating and getting full, in the end they collected what was left over, and had twelve basketfuls left.
Now I’m not sure that Eloise ever had 5,000 over for dinner, but we were told that she knew how to make food multiply. That lady could take a meal and turn it into a feast. If Eloise was doing the cooking for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or some other family gatherin, you might as well brought along your pepto-bismal, ant acid tablets and whatever stomach medicine you had with you. She loved serving you with her gift of cooking.
She had a legendary recipe for collard greens and pound cake. Family meant a lot to her, and feeding her family and her friends was one of the joys of her life. Now as much as she enjoyed cooking, she wouldn’t just eat anybody’s food. She might each your potatotoes, and she might eat someone’s chicken, and she might each someone’s else greens. She knew what you were good at cooking, and what you were not. The only person she’d eat a full meal from was Mrs. Stewart. Mrs. Stewart’s cooking was considered by her to be on the same level as her own. As soon as the service is over, I’d like to have Ms. Stewart’s phone number and address. If Eloise said she cook, that’s good enough for me.
Eloise captured the heart and affection of a lot of people. Her life has been exemplary in many ways. I was told she didn’t commit herself to one church, but that she attended several of them. It would have been good for her to have had a church to call her home, so that she could have taught others the loving example that she set in making a difference in the lives of others. She could have had her life greatly enriched by what others in the church could have offered her as well. We are called to be the body of Christ, which means, all believers are a part of each other, and really do need each other, to experience all that God has for us to enjoy. You and I need a church family.
When I look back, and I think of all the good that she has done in touching the lives of young people, I realize even more the quiet loss Glenville suffered in her passing a week and a day ago. Billy made the statement to us, “My grandmother would have been rich, except for the fact that she gave almost everything she had away.” Billy I want you to know the reality is, “grandmother is rich today, because she gave almost everything away.” True riches are not measured, by the amount of wealth one accumulates and leaves behind, but rather by the amount of love for us that’s left in the hearts of others when we leave this life behind.
For all of us are one day going to leave this life behind.
Eloise was God’s gift to us for over 90 years. Some of us were smart enough to recognize her as God’s gift and our lives were enriched. Eloise was the work of God’s creation, and as beautifully as God created her to be, she has returned to her Creator. She now stands before God, to give an account for the life that she lived, as we must all one day give an account. For all must appear before God after death.
The Bible tells us, there is a time and a season for everything under the sun. A time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to hope and a time to give up, a time for joy and a time for pain, a time to be born and a time to die. The one experience that is common to us all is death. It is as common and as natural as all the other things done under the sun.
We all have a certain number of days to live, and our joys and our struggles are different. But in the end we all come to the place that is called death. Death really makes us see what is important in life and what is not.
It is not possible to become all that God wants you to become without becoming spiritually what God wants you to be. Have you checked yourself lately to see where your spirit is in relation to God and His word? Have you examined what is it God is calling you to do and to be? Of all the decisions that Eloise made in life, what she chose to do with the claims of Jesus Christ upon her life, is the one that is going to stick with her throughout all of eternity.
In our lives, the only decision that we can make today, that will still be affecting us in 500 years, is the decision we make as to following Jesus Christ. For the Bible tells us, there is no other name given by which we can be saved.
God has made each of us very unique. He made Eloise in His image and put something in her that none of the rest of us has. It’s tragic when we do not take the time to try and to discover the beauty that God puts in each of us, because we’re too busy with other things. Her absence has made this world just a little bit different. Things will never be again as they were for the Fergurson/ Warner family. Everton is forever changed. Opportunities that were once there, will never be there again. Eloise was on loan to us for just a little while. Death is closer and coming quicker to us than we think.
There is appointed a day however, in which each of us shall surely die. The best way to die, is to have lived in anticipation of that day in which we will give an account to God. The Bible tells us that Jesus has gone forth to prepare a place for each of us in the afterlife.
Whether or not we make it to the place that Jesus has for us will not depend on whether our good deeds outweighed the bad ones. Everything depends on whether or not we invite Jesus Christ into our hearts to give Him control of our lives.
God has something wonderful for all of our lives. God lays before us two paths in life. One path is very broad and many people travel it, but it leads to destruction. The other path is very narrow but it leads to life. Jesus Christ is the gateway to the narrow path. To get on the narrow path, we must make a choice.
You see death is not something to be feared, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not die but have everlasting life. Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, Believe also in me. For I go to prepare a place for you. Not only has Christ gone to prepare a place for us, Jesus has revealed to us the road in which we should follow.
Eloise Fergurson has made her choice and her salvation rests totally in the hands and mercy of God because of what Jesus has done on her behalf. None of us know the day nor the hour when we shall leave this world. Christ has died on our behalf that we might have life. It’s a simple as confessing the wrong we have done which is called sin, our yielding our lives to him which means choosing to go in a different direction with a different leader in charge. For in the end, the only decision that will matter is what did we do with Jesus Christ. For only what’s done for Christ will last for all eternity.
