Eulogy Pauline Barnes
9/23/2011 2 Timothy 4:6-8 Eccl. 3:1-14
There are many verses in the bible, and when we come to the end of our lives, our obedience to some verses is more apparent than to others. It was a fall day on September 28, 1920 in which William and Georgia Counts witnessed the birth of their first child. They had taken the bible verse in Genesis 1:28 which says 28God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. We have all heard of the 12 tribes of Israel. William and Georgia almost gave God the opportunity to build on the twelve tribes from Locksberg Arkansas but they fell short just one child at 11.
Their first born child, was a beautiful little girl, by the name of Pauline. She still had nine brothers and one sister to follow behind her on a farm in Arkansas. She would learn early what it was to take what she had and pass it on to those who were coming behind her. One word that I would use to summarize her life is that she was an investor.
You will often hear people say, “when I found Christ my life changed.” But I want you to know, the reality is that God finds us. For Jesus said, “you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you that you should go forth a bear much fruit.” Pauline is proof of the hand of God at work in our lives, even before we are fully aware that God is at work. God chose her to make investments in the lives of others. She has been an investor ever since. She has been God’s channel to allow her knowledge and God’s love to be passed on as in investment in the lives of others.
Her investment began in the lives of her younger brothers and sister. In relating to them, she learned skills that she would take to her own children and to the children of countless others. No doubt her mother needed her help when it came to cooking for such a large family. As the oldest Pauline learned how to cook.
She took that talent to help out and became a legendary chef in her own right. I’m told there was no spaghetti, like Pauline’s spaghetti. The dressing that went with the turkey, was heavenly. Her chicken and dumplings were legendary. She invested her cooking skills into her children and those skills continue to bear fruit. They will say, “I can’t do it quite like mother did, but I’m pretty good in the kitchen.”
When you’re on a farm in Arkansas in the first half of the 20th century, money was going to be tight and buying clothes was not something that came easy. Pauline invested her time in learning how to sew to help out her mom. She invested in making her brothers and sisters look nice. She took that talent right into her own family for the next generation. Today we fight and argue over whether a prom dress is going to be appropriate or not.
Pauline did not have that problem with her daughters, because she was the designer, the maker, and the approver of the dress. She’d get started a day or two before the prom and have the dress done on time. Nobody was dressed any prettier than her daughters were. One thing about Pauline was she knew about fashion and was fashionable all her life. Her grandchildren were sometimes amazed at how on point she was when it came to wearing outfits.
When you’re the first born of eleven kids with nine brothers, you need to know something about how to invest your authority to keep things moving along. She learned how to speak with the oldest of the kids, and she knew how to speak with the youngest. She didn’t know it at the time, but God was investing in her skills of communication that would impact others in the years to come. She could speak with a sense of love and gentleness in her voice. Yet, she knew how to speak with authority so that you knew she meant business when she spoke.
We asked her daughters, who was the disciplinarian in the family, their mom or their dad. They said, “both of them were.” If our mother said be home at 8:30, she meant 8:30. If you didn’t make it on time, she would come and find you. You wouldn’t forget the experience.
Pauline was bright and intelligent as a child. You didn’t get the grades to finish high school and go off to college back in those days if you were not. No doubt she invested some of what she had learned in assisting her younger brothers and sister with their school work. She probably did not know it at the time, but God was getting her ready to have an impact on the lives of thousands of youth who would one day be sitting in her classroom.
For 41 years she taught in school. She was so gifted as a teacher, that many others came to see her in action in the classroom to see what made her so special and unique in equipping others to learn. She invested herself into the students that entered her doors. But she didn’t stop there. She invested herself into teaching others including adults to read so that they could lift themselves up in life. Somehow she invested that trait of wanting others to learn into her family and out of her own body came five more teachers for this world.
Pauline saw the struggles of having a large family, yet she must have also been surrounded by a lot of love in that family. Her family was a good natured family filled with comedians and jokesters. She must have dreamed of one day having a large family of her own. She met the love of her life in her husband Sylvester. They too attempted to be fruitful and multiplied. But they stopped at 8 kids. But with15 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren, they’ve done pretty good at multiplying amen. They gave their kids a home where they were loved and taken care of.
Pauline and Sylvester were united in backing up each other. If Mom said no, you couldn’t go back and ask Dad unless you wanted to risk your life. Pauline had great respect for her husband. They were a team making decisions together. They had family meetings which included everybody. Her kids said their mom was phenomenal, patient and irreplaceable.
Her husband, Sylvester loved his wife. Two of his favorite sayings were, “that girl’s a site” and “look at pretty Pauline.” Together they invested in their children, and all of their children have made them proud. One of Pauline’s favorite secular artists was Al Green and she loved his hit song, “Let’s Stay Together”. There’s a line that says “whether times are good, or bad, or happy sad” They gave their children the rare gift of a marriage which spanned fifty nine years. That’s a gift not only to their family, but to our church and to our community of what’s possible with faith in God. Let’s applaud her and her husband for 59 years of commitment.
Pauline not only invested herself academically into the lives of young people, but because of her love for Jesus Christ, she invested in them spiritually as well. She had been very active here at Calvary Presbyterian Church. She was one of our great Sunday School Teachers serving as team with Lily and Vivian. Whereas many teachers wake up early on Sunday morning to get their lessons together, Pauline was at church on
Saturday getting ready for the lesson on Sunday.
She has always been an organized person. She wanted to give the Lord her best. She was ordained an elder here at the church, because she exemplified the traits of a spiritual leader. She invested herself into the lives of others here at the church. She invested herself into the word of God and allowed it to change her. That’s why we sang, “How Great Thou Art” because she knew of the greatness of our God.
Pauline Barnes has been an incredible woman and has impacted more lives than she could have possibly known. She fulfilled God’s call on her life to come to Him so that she could bear much fruit. Many of us here today, tasted of the fruit of Pauline Barnes and know that it was good. God blessed her with people that have loved her dearly. The love that she poured and invested into others, came back to her many times over. Her children have risen and called her blessed. Her husband bragged about her to the world. Her students shout her praises. Her church rejoices in the gifts she gave. Her God says well done my faithful child.
Of all the decisions that Pauline made in life, the most important of all is the one she made to follow Jesus Christ. For in the end, only what’s done for Christ will last. Pauline was God’s gift to us who made investments for over 90 years.
Often times, we do not know that this is our last time together. That’s why it’s some important to be living for the Lord today. There is a verse in the bible in the book of Philippians that says, one day every knee is going to bow before Jesus Christ and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord. No matter who you are or what you believe, one day you will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. It’s going to make a huge difference as to whether you make that confession before you die or after you die.
Pauline Barnes chose to make that confession and put her eternal destiny on it. The word of God tells us that if die with Christ, we shall also live with Christ. Pauline could have said last Friday like so many other believers, “the time has come for my departure, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
Pauline Barnes has left behind a legacy of investments in lives and faithfulness in service and has gone to be with Jesus Christ. You may think, with all the joy, the love, the laughter, and the investments she brought into the lives of her family and all the work she did in the church that she certainly deserves to go to heaven. But if she could speak to us today, she would say that’s not quite true. You see, according to the Bible, none of us deserves to go to heaven. Did you know that according to Jesus, most people will not go to heaven?
Jesus said in , Mat 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the way to enter that narrow gate. All you have to do is to admit, "God, I have done a lot of things I should not have done. I realize I cannot pay for all that I have done. I ask you for forgiveness. I accept that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He being holy and righteous, paid the penalty for my sin. I invite him to come into my life and take control of it." Pauline Barnes made that decision years ago and has not regretted it since.
You will make numerous decisions in your life between your birth and your death. But the only decision that will still be personally affecting you a 1000 years from today, is what did you do with Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches there will certainly be a resurrection of everybody from the dead, and then comes the judgment of God.
We may say of Pauline Barnes, that she was my friend or co-worker, she was my aunt, he was my sister , she was my grandmother or great grandmother , or she was my mother but the greatest truth of them all is that Pauline Barnes is and forever will be a child of God who has now completely returned to God. For those of us who die without knowing Jesus Christ Pauline Barnes will only be a memory, a very good and loving memory. But for those of us who do know Jesus Christ, Pauline Barnes is simply waiting to meet us on the other side.
For the Bible clearly teaches,
1 Th 4:13 Brothers and sisters , we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men and women, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
