Today in Shawnee, Oklahoma, family will gather to celebrate a life.  Sadly, from my office this morning in Germany, I will not be able to attend.  But I will be doing what I was raised to do, preach God’s Word.  My Grandmother is my last Grandparent on this earth, though the other three just have a different address, one in a Heavenly Place.  

My mother’s parents committed themselves to God.  They committed to raising a family of 8 children.  They committed to preaching the gospel and ministering to Native Americans, mostly in Oklahoma, and she still attends a church primarily focused on Native Americans.  She always showed love and a smile to any in need.  She passed along a love for music as well to us all.  

I am grateful to she and my Grandfather for their 72 years of marriage and the children, including my mother, that they raised. 

100 Years 

Seems like a long time, but I don’t guess it really is. In America 200 years is a long time, but where I live in Germany, it isn’t really.

But 100 years is a longtime to live on this earth. I was reading today about life 100 years ago. It is hard to imagine the things you seen, lived through, and experienced. From the first Boeing planes built in 1916, to the defeat of Germany twice, the rise and fall of Communism, computers, cell phones, mimiograph to copiers, to your own iPad. Wow. I read that the life expectancy for men in 1916 was only 48 years. I am almost 52. For women it was 54, and here you are 100. Well, you are an extraordinary woman. Now, here I am living in that country of Germany, now our ally. Who knows what the next 48 years will be like as I stretch for my 100th birthday. I know you don’t get there without a plan. Grandpa didn’t get there on this earth, but he certainly got there. I wonder if he preached his planned sermon that day. I plan to play golf in the morning and sing and preach in the evening on my 100th birthday.

Today, I will do the most important thing I do, I will preach about Truth in two services here in Germany, to representatives of the greatest earthly force for the cause of Freedom. Wherever freedom is provided, the gospel goes in behind it. So, pray for our heroes today. On a day that has become known for a tragedy in 2001, we celebrate a life of triumph, love, and service.

Truly you were a woman of God, a wife of Character, a mother of commitment, a grandmother with grandeur, a great grandmother who lights the way, and truly a great, great, grandmother.

Heaven is certainly to come, and 100 years there will be a drop in a bucket. We sing, “when we’ve been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing his praise than when we’ve first begun.” Oh it is that understanding and firm belief in truth, that has shaped your life, and you have passed along to us. It is that confidence that has been the urgency, certainty, and security of our lives. And so it ever will be. I don’t know how many days, months, or years on this earth the Lord has for you, the reality is that those days are shorter than what you have already experienced. The days you have are shortening like the hours and minutes of a reddening western sky in evening. Oh but an approaching dusk only means that a dawn is just a few hours away. And so a dawn is coming for all of us that will find the Lord Jesus to be the sun that lights our eternity. And truly “what a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see.”

But for this day, we are grateful and for that day we are hopeful.

Thank you for being faithful to the Lord and always convinced of Truth and committed to sharing it.

Thank you for knowing his love and sharing it with everyone who would receive your gift of love in hopes that they would know a greater love.

On this day and every day you stand on that solid rock. As you stand you have provided a foundation by which we all rise to the skies.

Thank you

Your grateful grandson, father to two of your great grandsons, and grandfather to your first great great granddaughter.
Jimmy

Jim

Pastor Jim

Pastor Goforth

However I am known I am ever your proud and grateful grandson