Tamika Scott
Psalms 12/16/2021 139:13-16 John 14:1-6
The people of the United States of America were getting ready to celebrate their 200th birthday as a nation with only 34 days to go in the year 1976. But for Eugene and Yvonne Scott, the waiting was over, because the most exciting event for them in 1976 was the birth of their daughter Tamika Lakeisha Scott on May 31st.
Even though it was 1976, they were not celebrating in Washington DC in the nation’s capital, nor in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. They were celebrating in the great city of Hornell, NY which was made famous in our hearts by Louise and Ludie Bascomb and the five star restaurant known as L and L Diner.
Many of us have forgotten how July 4th 1976, influenced our lives, but we have not forgotten how our lives have been touched by Tamika’s
It was on a Monday in May in the year 1976, that God did something special as God so often does. God presented the world with a wonderful gift through the lives of Eugene and Yvonne Scott as Yvonne gave birth to her first daughter, Tamika, but known by many of us as just Tammie.
There are some people in the Bible who we know instantly at the sound of their name. Names like Moses, Esther, Peter, Mary and Paul. Yet there are people whose names we don’t know yet their actions changed history, the little girl who told Namaan the great Syrian General how to be healed, the little boy who shared his lunch with the disciples so that Jesus could feed 5,000, or the woman who used her hair to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and her perfume so that Jesus could teach us the heart of forgiveness.
Though we do not know their names, their actions are emblazoned in the Christian hall of fame.
God creates some people who are to become well known in the world, and God creates some people who to be very special in the world. Now some would say it is better to be well known than to be special, but I think when we come to the end of our days, we’re not looking back to see how well known we were, but rather were we special in the lives of others.
When death is staring at us in the face, we do not usually take great pride in our degree from Syracuse University or Alfred State College, or in our position as executive vice president of the Upstate University Hospital, nearly as much as we do from a child saying I love so much because of all that you did for me and I’m going to miss you, or from a person coming in and saying, when I was hungry, it was you that saw to it that I got a meal and for that I am grateful.
Tamika LaKeisha Scott was not created by God to be somebody well known whose name would cover the country and the globe at large, but I cannot think of anyone else who has been more special in the way that she has touched the lives of others.
You will not find her name listed in the Who’s Who Book Of American Actors, but her family has great memories of the church plays she was in as a child. You won’t find her in the list of grammy music awards, but heaven has her name recorded as a child singing in the church choir.
You will not find her name listed in the Who’s Who Book of American Counselors, but how many of your looked to her as someone you could go and talk to about your problems?
How many of you found her to have the ability to genuinely listen to you share your pain and to be able to walk with you through it? How many of you got some advice you didn’t like, but you knew it was true? Tammie had the ability to both empathize with you and to be brutally honest with you. She was her grandmother’s child.
She never was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, but she lived such a life of love and putting others first, that she had a calming effect on the lives of others. Somehow she could bring peace in the midst of a storm you might have been going through. Part of that has to do with going through so much pain in her own life and yet being determined not to complain or to be a burden to someone else.
We sometimes forget, that no matter who we are, what we have done, or who we have become, we all started out in the hands of God.
For the Scripture tells us in Psalm 139:13-16
[13] For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. [14] I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. [15] My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, [16] your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
God knew that Tammie would be a leader and a lover from the very beginning. God made her bossy enough to keep things moving forward, stubborn enough not to give up, and loving enough to make you want to have her in your life.
When I was thinking about who’s personality from the Bible do I see in Tammie based on what I have been told about her, the one that came to my mind is that of Jesus. There was something about Jesus that made people want to be around him. Jesus attracted people from all walks and stations of life. There was one day in Jesus’s life in which the disciples got very upset with the people.
The people were trying to bring children to Jesus so that Jesus could touch them and pray for them. The disciples let the people know that Jesus was too busy to deal with children and he had more important things to do than spend his life with kids.
Jesus shocked the disciples by saying, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Jesus stayed in the place until he had touched every child that had been brought to him.” I imagine, once the disciples got out of the way, the children ran to Jesus.
Tammie had this some kind of a heart toward her nieces and nephews. She loved each of them and wanted them all to feel special in her eyes. You could see the love she had for kids in the love she had for her own son Tyshawn and her granddaughter Ava. You could even see it in her love for Stormy Rose, her dog, whom she turned into a person as only dog lovers would understand. Tammie made it her personal mission in life to try to spoil, Tyshawn, Ava, and Stormy Rose. I’m told she did a pretty good job of it.
Even Jesus had three disciples that her spoiled in Peter, James and John. Tammie had a love for family. I think it came from her great grandmother, Louise, was passed on through her grandmother Helen, and flowed through her Mom, Yvonne to her. I was told several times how she was determined to be the glue in keeping family members connected.
How many of us would have missed out on special events if Tammie had not of called and urged or even insisted that we participate? I saw a post on her facebook page in which she indicated she was in the kitchen with her granddaughter and it took her back to a moment in time in which she was in the kitchen with her grandmother. A few months earlier she had posted, what I wouldn’t give to be in the kitchen with my grandmother one more time. She was passing on what she had received.
She felt compelled to try to serve and please her grandmother, and the spirit of her grandmother lives within her today. She wanted us to come together for events even in Covid, because she believed her grandmother would have wanted us together for holiday.
Family was at the core of her being. But family wasn’t limited to those born in the group. She had a way of reaching out to her co-workers with love and affection so that they enjoyed her presence and she love them and her job. She didn’t need the courts permission to adopt brothers and sister, she just did it. Her love could make you feel more like a sister or brother than the cousin or friend you actually were. Tammie just know how to earn your love and respect.
I don’t know if it was her contagious smile, or just a gift God placed inside of her, but she was able to always turn a stranger into a friend in just a matter of moments. When you did something for her, she appreciated it. When Jeanette took her to a football game to see the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, she became a fan for life. It must have broken her heart to see him go to Tampa Bay, but she still liked Tom Brady.
Jesus seemed to take joy in doing things for others that he did not have to do. I think when he raised Jarius’ daughter from the dead and gave her back to her parents, I believed Jesus smiled when he saw Jarius, his wife, and their daughter hugging each other once again.
Tammie had inside of her that same part of Jesus, that delighted in doing good for others just to see them happy. She wanted to see others have a great Christmas whether she could afford it or not.
She loved organizing the picnic and the dinners to bring people together. Somehow she found a way to be a blessing to others. If she couldn’t give you money, she would find a way to give you a laugh because she was a very humorous and positive person .
There was a side to Jesus that we often missed because we read the Scriptures to seriously. But there was a comical side to Jesus. Think about it, you come to Jesus with, $5 in your pocket, and there are 15,000 hungry people. You tell Jesus, “Jesus you need to dismiss these people because the stores are going to close soon and they haven’t eaten.”
Jesus says, “no problem, you give them something to eat.” The disciples must have burst out laughing as Phillip stand there with this puzzled look on his face. Andrew joins in by saying, “Hey, here’s a little boy with five loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many?”
He probably was laughing as he said it. I think Jesus did this, just to see the expressions on their face because the Scriptures said, “Jesus said this because he already knew what he was going to do.
There was a side to Jesus that demonstrated true humility. On the night when Jesus was arrested and the soldiers came with swords and clubs, Peter drew his sword and was ready to fight to save Jesus. He even cut off a person’s ear.
But Jesus took the ear and healed the person who was there to arrest him so that he could be crucified. Jesus said, “Look if I wanted to, I could call down 12,000 angels and wipe out this small mob sent to arrest me.” Jesus said, “no one is taking my life, I voluntarily lay it down.”
Tammie knew about humility. She constantly put the needs of others ahead of her own. She didn’t do things to remind you of some kind of debt you owed her. One of her weaknesses was not asking others for help sooner than she did.
The Scriptures tell us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom. When Tammie received the knowledge she would have to go on dialysis at age 29, she knew then the number of her days would be shortened because even though dialysis can save your life, it also shortens your life span.
Most of us live as though we are going to live forever. Tammie did not have that luxury because of her diagnosis. That knowledge would have made some people bitter and angry.
But for Tammie it made her realize that everyday is a gift from God and that it should be enjoyed to its fullest moments. She didn’t take her days for granted, nor did she choose to use them to complain about her circumstances.
For her, it was not so much how long her days would last as it was, how well would she enjoy each of them.
We have lost a tremendous gift from our family, and we have lost a gift in the body of Christ, but we know it’s not the end.
Tammie has had a lot of special relationships with a lot of people in this world. But our greatest reason for hope and for joy today is that she had a relationship to Jesus Christ. A few years ago she made the decision to return to the God she had learned about as a child and reaffirmed her faith in Jesus Christ trusting him for her salvation.
I do not understand the ways of God, in determining the length of our years or the number of our days. We like to think the good will live a long life and the rest will have short lives. But God never said that’s the way it’s going to be.
God said something far more encouraging and filled with hope. It says in Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. God knows something about death and its purposes that we do not. Tammie was one of the special saints of God.
God said her death was precious in His sight. God knows that Tamika’s death was not in vain. We may want an answer from God, and that’s okay. Maybe it will lead us to acknowledge who God is and what God is expecting of us. Tammie knew God created her, God walked with her, and God called her to a place prepared for her.
In the bible it says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Do you realize God loves us all, but death will be the final separator between those who are living for Christ and those who are not. It’s not matter of who was good and who was bad. We all were bad, and God wants to give us all the same chance he gave to Tammie . If we do not know Christ, we are condemned to eternal death. Which means forever separated from God in pain and misery.
Jesus has gone forth to prepare a place for each of us. But like Tammie, we must make a choice. 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 as 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.
Her decision made her not only special, but also important. For her fame of eternity in heaven will be remembered for generations after the important people of this world have long since been wiped from the pages of history.
To those who do not know Jesus Christ, Tamika LaKeisha Scott will only be a memory. It will be a great memory, but still just a memory. For those who do know Christ, Tamika is waiting with all other family members who died in Christ to meet us.
For the word of God clearly states, " 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 words, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left at 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 with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. Our God is faithful.
