Valencia Nicholson Simmons
In the year of 1959 , America and Russia had its eyes focused toward the heavens in that the Russians had launched Sputnik into space two years earlier and the Americans were far behind in the space race. Meanwhile in heaven, God was looking down, and though the race for space was important to many, it was not all consuming for God. You see God was busy concentrating on sending a gift down to earth.
Every now and then God decides to add a little something extra special to the family of humanity and wraps it up in a little package that we know as a little girl. This little girl was called Valencia Simmons and on May 28th, 1959, the world received her through the lives of Lloyd and Bernice Simmons. Little did they know what bundle of imagination they were holding in their arms.
Valencia entered this world and became , a daughter, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a cousin, a friend, an entertainer, a computer programmer, a neighborhood mom, a co worker, a poet, a tap dancer, and a child of God. She has made the journey from the heavens to the earth and back to the heavens once again.
It’s never easy saying goodbye to someone we love and care about. No doubt for you as a family, this is a double blow having lost your father, husband and grandfather at the start of this year. But God shares in your suffering and grief in that the Lord knows the loss that you feel. Jesus Himself cried with Mary and Martha in the loss of their brother.
But at the same time God gives a special hope in moments like these for God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Jesus also said, “let not your heart be troubled, for you believe in God, then believe also in me.”
Some ask “if God is loving, why is there death.” I see it as, because God is loving there is death. Can you imagine what a burden it would be to have to live life forever in the way we know it here on earth?
What it would be like to forever have pain in our bodies, unforgiveness in our hearts, and bitterness in our soul, or to be stuck at the bottom of poverty forever. God has seen all the evil, and the madness, and the pain that goes on in the world, and God has determined that at some point this must stop. That point is death.
We want to think that all of us are entitled to a certain number of days, weeks, months and years. We all expect to die of old age. We expect children to bury their parents and not the other way around. This makes Valencia’s death even more difficult to bear. But there is no such entitlement to a specific number of days found in the Bible. The Bible encourages us in Psalm 90:12 (NIV) Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. The message of the Bible is that death is always close at hand, walking by us like a constant companion.
Some of us are alive today, simply because of God’s grace and God’s mercy. We know we were in some situations, some accidents, some places, and we were doing some things that should have taken us out of this world, but God had other plans for our lives. God is the only reason we are still alive to tell about what almost happened.
Did you know that the Bible teaches that while you were in your mother’s womb, God had something special in mind for you? Did you know that most of us, never get around to discovering just how precious we are in the eyes of God? We’re not precious because we’re so good. We’re precious because of what God knows that He can make of us. For all of us were made in the image of God. But not all of us discover the benefits that come from being made in God’s image.
When God sent Valencia into the world, He sent the world a gift. Valencia had an imagination that could envelope you in the stories that she could tell. As a child, her imagination led her into all kinds of trouble. She and David her brother were the ones who got the most whippings, usually stemming out of some creative plan of Valencia.
Valencia was a born leader. She was very bright and intelligent. Like many leaders, she had her own way of getting things done. Whereas some would call it determination, her father called it belligerent. She would have been a wealthy woman if she had $10 for ever time he called her belligerent as she was growing up. She was the kind of person who you had to prove something to for her to accept it.
Valencia also had a wonderful heart and a nurturing spirit. She had many dolls and had a name for each and every one of them. The love she had for the dolls, was just precursor of the love she would come to have for children. At age 9 ½, her mother was trying to explain to the kids, how blessed they were with all the things they had. She said look at all the toys you have. I never in my life even had a doll.
Valencia’s heart was touched by her mom’s comments. That Christmas when her mother opened her gift, she found a doll that Valencia had made for her having knitted it all together complete with clothing and shoes. Her mom called it the prettiest little ugly doll ever, and to this day she still treasures that doll and keeps it in a plastic bag.
Valencia loved bringing joy and laughter into the lives of others. Although she was quiet, she was a great entertainer and comic when she wanted to be. Her children loved her and she loved them. They appreciated how their mom was always real with them. Valencia was so real, she knew how to be strict with them, mean with them and sweet with them all in the same few moments of time.
Valencia never did things to be seen. She wasn’t looking for glory or credit, but simply trying to make a difference where she could. There are some people that God places a magnet love within them so that others are drawn to them. Valencia had such a magnet.
As a result, her house was the house where the kids wanted to gather. She became the kind of mom away from home for the kids in the neighborhood. She took that same creative mind that got her into trouble as child, and put it to work to enrich the lives of the children who came around her.
Her personality was positive and upbeat so that you enjoyed being in her presence because you were going to laugh. She was lively and vivacious. She was energetic and creative. She was the kind of person you could talk to because she would tell it like it was. She knew how to take charge of a situation and she knew how to take care of business. She was an incredible woman.
She was the kind of woman who did what she said she was going to do. Once she made up her mind on something, you could be pretty sure that it was going to get done.
Valencia had an impact on our church in that she served as our church secretary for a while and helped us to run our office more efficiently. Valencia also knew that the hand of God was on her life and that God had called her to ministry. She served as Sunday School Teacher and as an evangelist preaching at several churches. But for various reasons, she walked away from that call and did not experience all that the Lord had for her. After the death of her father, she told me she was going to try to come back to Glenville. There are many good intentions we have, but if we wait too long, life and death both have a way of pushing them aside.
God has allowed death in this world, not so much to frighten us, but to remind us of who we are, what are our limitations, and what is really important in life. God wants to walk closer to us than death ever could. God has always wanted to be in close relationship to human beings, because that’s why He created us.
For The bible tells us John 3:16-17 "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. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God loved us too much to leave us alone. God knew there was nothing we could do to pay the penalty for the wrong we have done. That is why Jesus Christ entered into the world. Jesus offered himself as a payment for the wrong that we have done. It is through Jesus Christ, that we find the forgiveness and mercy of God.
To receive it, we simply acknowledge, yes God I know that I have done wrong and deserve death for it. I ask your forgiveness of my wrong and I accept the work that Jesus Christ has done on my behalf. I give my life to serve Him in appreciation of the work He has done for me.
Going to heaven is not a matter of having done more good things than bad ones. None of us will ever live lives so good that God takes notice of us and say, that one deserves to go to heaven. Going to heaven is dependent on whether you died having accepted the work of Jesus Christ or not.
The people who go to heaven, are the ones who realize they never could deserve it. None of us deserves what Jesus Christ did for us, but his grace and mercy is available to us all. We may think we have many days ahead of us to decide what to do with Jesus, but there’s not a soul hear tonight, who believed a week ago, that we would be in this place at this hour, for this reason.
Today is the day for us to be prepared to go and stand before God. Valencia has gone before God to give an account for the life she lived and for what she chose to do with the offer of life from Jesus Christ.
If you died tonight, what would your life say about the one called Jesus. If Jesus is not first in your life, then it does not matter all the wonderful things we can say about you at your funeral next week. You will wake up and discover that not only is there a heaven, there is also a hell. We have to make a decision to go to heaven. No such decision is necessary for hell, because all of us are on that road until we voluntarily choose to leave it.
Jesus put it this way, “the road is wide that leads to destruction, and most people are traveling on it.” But the road is very narrow, that leads to eternal life, and few people choose to take it.
If your life is not being traveled on the narrow road, then have you considered the possibility that you may be living your life in vain. The only decision that you make, that will still be affecting you personally 200 years from today, is the decision you make as to whether or not you have chosen to follow Jesus Christ. For only what’s done for Christ is going to last.
Death is never the end for those who die in the Lord. It is a sad time, but it is not without hope. For we who die in Christ, know that a day is coming when we shall all be united once again. That coming day of getting together for one more time is going to last forever for the Scriptures tells us 1 Th 4:13-18 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. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
