The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.
—Ezekiel 37:1-14
[Ezekiel 37:1-14 is also the text that we read aloud immediately before the maternal grandmother was removed from a ventilator.]
But, we cannot, we must not, let the story of my grandmother's life end in that hospital room. We cannot, we must not, let a life of eighty years be defined by a final day. That is not, in any way, to deny death. If we deny death, then there is no point in gathering here today. If we deny death, then my grandmother's life is meaningless. One of my grandmother's pieces of advice was “Trust in him who keeps the faith.” Therefore, we must keep that faith. Therefore, we must speak boldly and truthfully, as everyone in this room knows that my grandmother had no problem doing, even at the cost of being ignored by everyone around her, even at the cost of having people mad at her.
The truth is that my grandmother wandered in the valley of the shadow of death her entire life. She wandered amidst the dry bones of a life filled with hardship—both those presented to her and those she created for herself. My grandmother was no stranger to sin. Yet, she continued to live her life, taking opportunities, especially in her later years, to try to right some of the wrongs that she allowed to foster. I believe that she would be the first to admit that those moments of grace, made present in her weakness, where she was able to help a friend in need or restore a relationship soured long ago, were not hers, but gifts of God. They were those moments when God was stitching sinew and muscle back onto the bones that she had left scattered in her wake.
ANOTHER TIME TO BE BORN
And, now, as we stand here today, we hope in faith that God is going to literally build her again—bone set against bone, tendons and ligaments to hold them together, organs to give shape, skin to keep it all contained. And, we hope in faith that God breathes his Spirit once again into the body that he gives her—a new body that will not suffer the pains of this world, a new body that will not long for a taste of liquor to make it through the day, a new body that will not know the pains of cancer and heart failure and labored breathing. The promise that this is true comes not only in life being breathed into dry bones, of life being breathed into a scattered people, a ravaged nation, but also to my grandmother, and to all of us gathered here. The promise of the breath of new life from God comes also in John 14:18—“I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” We don't have to do anything, other than accept it.
A TIME TO EMBRACE
Therefore, I picture a day when Christ comes again, and my grandmother rises from the grave, and we all rise from our graves. This is a day of judgment, when the joys and sorrows of our lives are laid bare before God. This is a day of forgiveness, when our sins are cleansed, put away forever. This is a day when illness and death and sin are finally conquered, when our broken lives are put back together, our weaknesses no longer matter. And, on this day, I imagine us meeting my grandmother again. I can already hear her words to us: “Why has it taken you so long to visit? I'm glad you get to see me.” I will throw my arms around her and thank her for being who she was, as unique as that was, and for the pieces of her that I recognize in myself.
A TIME TO REMEMBER
So, I will leave you with this thought today. There is a time to mourn, and a time to dance. I hope that we can do both today. I hope that we can remember the life of mom, grandma, [name], [nickname] as it was lived, with all of its foibles and flaws and quirks. I hope that we can celebrate that life, even as we acknowledge that it is over for the time being, and even as we hope in faith that it is restored to wholeness in a new place and new time. I hope that we can carry a love for my grandmother in our hearts. She would have wanted that.
And, if we can do that then we have an answer to her question of “When will I see you again?” In our hearts we can answer: “Soon.”
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Eulogy is by Troy's Work Table and was delivered to a standing-room only crowd at the maternal grandmother's memorial service. The picture was taken by the sister-in-law at the same.
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