Jeweln Yvonne Barnes by Rick Gillespie-Mobley
Ecclesiastes 3:1-3:14
Jewelyn Barnes
On August 6th, in a very small town called Columbia , in the heart of southern Mississippi, in the year 1936, God sent a little bundle of life and potential to Joe Harper and MayBelle Haynes. They named that little bundle Jewelyn Yvonne Barnes.. You see Joe and Maybelle had responded to the call of God to be fruitful and fill the earth. They did not know they were not the only ones given the commandment, because they tried their best because Jewelyn was number 15 with three more to come.
Jewelyn 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 struggles are different. But in the end we all come to the place that is called death, and from that point we look back and see what happened during our lives. Who was this person that the world knew as Jewelyn Yvonne Barnes?
I didn’t know Jewelyn personally, but I did get a glimpse of her through her daughter Wardella and her son in law, John. They both agreed as many of you have known, that she was a loving and caring person. She walked through life with a good amount of humility about her. It was important to her to treat people well.
Life was not always easy for Jewelyn. Any black woman born in Mississippi in 1936 was going to know what it was like to face challenges in her life. Any child that was the 15th in 18 children was going to know something about hand me downs, and struggles to have her parents make ends meet. There were not going to be too many steak dinners and visits to the restaurants. Many of the these we take for granted today, would have seemed like a rich person’s dream to Jewelyn as a child. Any child that loses a mother in life before reaching adulthood, carries a pain and a hurt that few may know about.
But that didn’t stop Jewelyn from having a vision of a brighter day in life. Young people drop out of school today claiming they have problems. But 95% do not come close to having the kinds of problems that Jewelyn had to overcome, and yet she graduated with her high school diploma. Problems do not have to keep us down. She had a strength and a tenacity to try to do better in the face of her problems..
Jewelyn did not allow her circumstances to make her bitter about life. She chose to look to bring joy into the lives of others. She looked at the gifts that God gave to her and realized that she could make a difference in people’s lives. She took that gift that she had to sew, and if you needed prom dress, but didn’t have prom dress money, she was a friend willing to make you look good in the dress she would make.
God blessed her with the gift of being able to cook. I asked John what did she cook that he liked best. He said, “that’s easy, I liked everything she cooked the best.” If you told her what you really liked, she would do her best to make it for you. Her heart was filled with love and generosity when it came to eating and feeding people. She was the kind of person that got joy in seeing others having a good time.
Wardella was a Christmas gift to her mom in that she was born on Christmas day. She told her mom, she was tired of cake on her birthday. That’s all her mom needed to know. From then on, Wardella was treated to a thick deep dutch apple pie with brown sugar crumbs on the top. She loved it so much she learned how to make it for herself.
We have a society that likes to talk about mother-in-law jokes. John loved his mother in law and she loved him. Only the Lord knows how many episode of Gunsmoke and Happy Days, along with black and white movies they shared together but he enjoyed her company and she his. They could sit together on the porch with great conversation.
Lewelyn had the ability to look into her son in law and see what he needed. John was so touched by her ability to accept him just as he was without reservation. He admired the respect she gave him as a man, and the places of honor she gave into his life with simple things such as sitting at the head of table, being asked to lead in prayer, and carving the turkey. Sometimes as we go through life, it’s the small things we do, that impact others lives the greatest.
Wardella said her mother was a wonderful woman. She loved the tv shows of the 70’s but she was an up to date sports fan when it came to watching football and basketball on tv. Wardella pointed out that her mother had a true appreciation for whatever you gave to her. Once she gave her mother a two piece outfits with a red tank top, and the way her mother demonstrated her joy for it was the same as if she had a received a mink coat with diamonds on it. She was simply grateful that someone cared enough to think about what she might like to enjoy.
Jewelyn was grateful for the roles her relatives played in her life after the death of her mother. She was determined to try to pass on some of the love she had received into the lives of others. Wardella said that’s why Robert, Thomas, Brenda and Joseph meant so much to her.
Jewelyn never was afraid of work. She’d work her job, and then take that same job and have a little hussle with it on the side. She learned a few things from working in the restaurants from all those years. She knew she was smart enough to do catering on her own when the opportunity arose. I’m told that Stouffers’ didn’t know it, but every now and then Jewelyn used her knowledge and made some Stouffer’s biscuits on her own at home.
God grants us life for the purpose of becoming all that He intended for us to be. He gives us all unique talents, gifts and abilities to have an impact on the lives of others
Jeweln has been a gift in her family and she has seen three generation of her direct descendants. She has had a patience with her grandchildren and great grandchildren that’s been somewhat remarkable. A huge loss has been suffered, but the love she has still remains in the hearts of those of you who took the time to receive it.
The Bible tell us that there is a way that seems right to a person, but at the end of it is death. If we are all living in order that we might some day die, it should be of utmost important that we live in such way that in the end our lives would not have been lived in vain. Whether or not we have lived in vain will not be determined by how much we accumulated in terms of material goods, for naked we came into this world, and naked we go out.
The only thing that we can take out of this world is what we have given away. For that is how Jesus said to lay up treasures in heaven. Jewelyn has given of herself to many others. She was blessed with more days than others at nearly 77 years of age.
There is a time and a season for everything. However sometimes we are not wise enough to understand what time it is in life. Things that we are putting off to one day, should and need to be done today. For when it is time to die, there’s no asking for an extension because of something you have to do that’s really important
. Today is the day to be loving as Jewelyn was. Who is it that could use more of your love right in your own home? Today is the day to be as accepting as Jewelyn was. Who is it near you that could use some compassion and acceptance? , Today is the day to decide to make the most of the life that God has given to you.
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 Jewelyn 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.
John and Wardella said that Jeweln had a place set apart in her dining room for spending time with God. They said, if you talked with her for any length of time, Jesus was going to come up. They said the book she often read was the bible.
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 Jeweln 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 Barnes family. Opportunities that were once there, will never be there again.
Life is so strange and so short. That’s why we need to live and to love as though each day may be our last. You may say Jeweln Yvonne Barnes was my sister or my mother or my friend or my grandmother, or my former co-worker and those things may be true. But the greater truth is that God gave Jeweln on loan to us for just a little while, and through death God has called her back. God is going to call us all back, and we all need a church family to be ready for that call. A church can help us to grow in God and to discover all that God created us to be.
Death is so much closer to us than we think. How often have we narrowly escaped its grasp by unexpectedly stopping on the corner, only to have a car come zooming past out of nowhere, or being in a serious accident and walking away with minor injuries, or suffering a heart attack or stroke yet being close enough to medical help to be saved. No, God has watched over us more times than we will ever know.
There is appointed a day however, in which each of us shall surely die. 10 out of 10 doctors agree that we will all someday 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.
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.
Jeweln Yvonne Barnes has made her choice and her salvation rests totally in the hands and mercy of God. 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 our sins, our yielding our lives to him. For in the end, the only decision that will matter is what did we do with Christ. For only what’s done for Christ will last for all eternity.
My friend, which decision have you made with your life. For if you have not chosen to follow Jesus, you have chosen to stay on the path that leads to destruction. God has a better ending in mind for you.
