The Joy of Confidence
Today we will celebrate the life of my Grandma, Annabelle Berry. Last Wednesday night, she took her last breath on earth and her first breath in heaven.
On this earth, she was an amazing woman with a heart for hospitality that would put the best 5 star hotel to shame. Often my life, it came in the liquid sweetness found in a can of Pepsi.
It seemed that the flagship product of Pepsico could be found in her refrigerator regardless of season or time of day. As a kid, it was my reward for cutting her grass, or it helped wash down her famous sugar cookies. As a young adult, it was waiting for me after I’d moved something or shoveled some snow. As a man, her tupperware glasses that rivaled Si Robertson’s favorite hand ornament, would become filled with the sweet nectar for my kids.
All of these memories pale in comparison to the most important thing about my Grandma.
She is a child of God.
This means that I don’t grieve her passing like someone without hope.
“And you should not grieve as the heathen do who have no hope, because we have hope, based on the most assured promise, that as we have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall come to that life where, more than ever, their dearness to us will be proportional to the closeness we shared on earth and where we shall love them without fear of parting.”
- St. Augustine
I will carry on the Berry name, not just because we are a long line of quick witted men and wives who put up with us. I will carry on the Berry name because it is a long line of faithful followers of Jesus.
He came to save lost sinners (Luke 19:10; 1 Timothy 1:15). He laid down his life, bearing our sin before the wrath of God, so that sinners like us might be set free and have the sweet assurance of relationship to him (Romans 5:9; Hebrews 2:14 – 18). The promise of God is that all the Father has given to Jesus come to him, and those who come to him he never drives away (John 6:37). To know him is to have eternal life (John 17:3). Our loved one’s reliance on Jesus Christ in the gospel is the certainty of their eternal home.
When this day is done, I will sip on a can of Pepsi. I will long for Amber to bake some of Grandma’s sugar cookies. I will think of the woman who helped me be the man I am today. I will pray with my kids. I will hold my wife. I will rest knowing that my family has been captured by Christ. My confidence is in one thing and one thing only…. The Gospel
God’s holiness
Man’s sinfulness and deserving judgment
Christ’s perfect personhood and atoning work to save us
Our necessary response of repenting and believing in Christ
What will you do at the end of this day?
I love you Grandma.
Raise a glass with the King and bask in the stories of his immeasurable grace and mercy. You are home where you belong.
