Saturday, October 6, 2018

MESSAGE FOR MARGARET


MESSAGE FOR MARGARET

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever. 
Psalm 23 (NKJV)

We usually sing Psalm 23, The Shepherd’s Psalm, in its versified form, at funerals. It reminds us where to look when we lose and mourn the loss of a loved one. It reminds us not to seek solace in a bottle but to look to the Comforter Himself for comfort. Psalm 23 does this by reminding us that there is a Shepherd.

It reminds us that the Lord Jesus is our Shepherd. It reminds us that we, the flock of His green pastures, want for or lack nothing because we have Him looking after us. It reminds us that He restores us to sanity by the renewing of our minds, restoring our souls. It reminds us that He enables us to tell the difference between good and evil by leading us in the way we should go. It reminds us that we’ve got nothing to fear, not our enemies nor even death itself, for He is armed with a rod to defend us and a staff, a shepherd’s crook to rescue us from times of trouble.

It reminds us that He pours the good oil on us, and that “we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet”, the cup of His kindness. The cup from which we drink is always overflowing. It reminds us that His goodness and His mercy is with us until the day we die, and beyond. And, finally, it reminds us that He has promised that He will never evict us from His house, from His house of many mansions.

Margaret was my mother-in-law for thirty-seven years. She wasn’t present at our wedding, but neither were any of you. I broke Margaret’s heart when I took her daughter away to live with me in Canada back in 1980. Margaret visited Dot and me in Winnipeg shortly thereafter. Her daughter was pregnant with Jennifer, her first grandchild. Then Margaret visited again in 1988 and saw three of her grandchildren, Jennifer, Nina and Fionna.

One of the blessings in the Bible is: “Yes, may you see your children’s children.” Psalm 128:6a. Margaret was blessed by living long enough to see her children’s children. Andy and Mary included. And, wow! Margaret got to live long enough to see her children’s children’s children: Tristan, Lanna, Owen and Caleb! Truly blessed.

Not everyone gets a mention in a book. Margaret gets mentioned in my book From Mason to Minster a few times, but here’s a mention that’s relevant to today. It’s found under the heading: Postcards from Australia

The Winnipeg winters were getting harder and harder for me to thole. I loved the hot Manitoba summers, but they would end all too soon... 
Sometimes it would begin to snow early, one time even on my eldest daughter Jennifer’s birthday on October 8… 
The same snow could lie on the ground from October to April without melting once. Shovelling paths and driveways became the exercise regime for all. That pathway to our mailbox had to be kept clear lest the mailman refuse to deliver! Dorothy showed me some photographs she received in a letter from her brother who had moved to Brisbane, Australia. I asked about the coloured man in the picture. “That’s my brother Alan!” she said. Alan, sporting a glorious suntan, was surrounded by palm trees, golden sands, and a turquoise ocean. We applied to migrate to Australia and were accepted... 
Alan was going to put us up in his Brisbane flat. I had begun to pray that the Lord would gather Dorothy’s family together. Her mum and her sister still lived in Scotland. We were in Australia for a year when her sister Elizabeth and her husband Robert arrived to stay. Then came Margaret, her mum![1]

That all happened nearly thirty years ago.  And here we all are in 2018. But 2018 hasn’t been a good year for us. To borrow a phrase once used by the queen, 2018 has been an “annus horribilis”! – a horrible year.

Alan and Anne were sick, really sick! Alan getting his sister Dot’s bone-marrow stem cells to help in the battle with his leukemia. Anne arriving at hospital the day her husband Alan was leaving after his chemo-treatment, not to take her husband home, but to check in for her own treatment for a different kind of leukemia!

I was staying in the same hospital a few times for various (unmentionable!) surgeries, which made it handy for visiting Alan and then Anne.

And then Margaret died on Friday 14 September 2018 around 12.50pm in her wee flat in Toowong after having been sent from hospital to die at home – as was her wish.

It was a good departure! Her children’s children, Tristan, Lanna, Owen and Caleb had visited her and had interacted with her while, though very sick, she was still able to engage with them. Her youngest great-grandchild, Caleb, had asked Margaret how she got to be so old. She laughed and said that she was wondering that herself! She got to see Andy and Mary too.

Then on the day she left us she was surrounded by her children and her children’s children. Robert was there. Elizabeth and Dorothy were there. Jennifer, Nina and Fionna were all there.

I had left work and I was busy circling the block trying to find somewhere to park my car outside the flat when Margaret “gave up the ghost”, as the Bible would term it.

O, and Alan, in hospital with a serious lung-infection, really serious, had phoned, which apparently was very unusual for him, and was on the speaker phone.

Margaret’s last breath was a strong one as it exited her body for the very last time. The Bible says, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7. Though I just missed it, the reports I got were that Margaret’s spirit left her with such a force that it certainly went upward! But before she left us, she had indicated that when she got to Heaven she would be asking that her son get better, or words to that effect. We are happy, more than happy, that Alan is well enough to be here today, and Anne!

Now back to Psalm 23, The Shepherd’s Psalm. It’s a Psalm written about Jesus. Jesus said in John 10, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture…” Does that word “pasture” jump out at you? As it says in Psalm 23, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

Jesus goes on to say, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep… I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and I lay down My life for the sheep.”

And when He laid down His life for His sheep by being nailed to a cross, it says in Luke 23:46, “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 26:46 (KJV). The same Greek New Testament word pneuma may be translated, spirit, wind or breath. And “to give up the ghost” is to ekpneo, made up from two Greek words, ex as in exit and pneo, to breathe hard. Therefore, it means, to breath out hard, to expire, to give up the ghost.

In honour of Margaret and the city that gave birth to her I’d like to read a short portion of Scripture from Jamie Stuart’s “A Glasgow Bible” which is found under the heading Jesus Crucified:

When it came tae the middle o the day, the hale country wis plunged intae a spooky darkness. At three in the efternin Jesus cried oot fae the cross, ‘My God, My God, why hiv ye left me?!’
Then wan o the criminals oan the next cross said tae him, ‘Hey freen, are ye no the Christ? Gauny prove it then an save yersel – aye, an us tae while ye’re aboot it.’ But the other criminal shouted ower, ‘Belt up you! We deserve tae die, but this man didny dae ony wrang.’ Then he whispered ower tae Jesus, ‘Will ye keep mind o me?’ An Jesus said, ‘Today ye’ll be wi me in Paradise – I promise ….’ 
Then Jesus cried oot in his agony, ‘Faither, intae yer hauns I gie my spirit.’ An wi these words, Jesus breathed his last.”

Then jumping ahead to the good bit, the bit under the heading The Resurrection:

Early oan the Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene an Mary the mither o James, went tae the grave takin sweet smellin ointments tae pit oan the body. But when they got close up tae the tomb, the first thing they saw wis that the huge stane had been moved oot the wey. They went in, kinna feart-like.

All o sudden two men wer staunin in front o them. The weemen wir terrified an cudny even look up. The men said, ‘Tell us, why are ye searchin amang the graves for someone who’s alive? He’s no here! He’s come back tae life again! D’ye no even remember whit he himself telt ye when he wis wi ye in Galilee – that the Christ must be haunded ower tae evil men, nailed tae the cross, an be raised tae life again oan the third day?’ Then, sure, they remembered whit Jesus had telt them. So they raced back in joy tae Jerusalem an telt the eleven disciples an aw the ithers, ‘He’s alive! Jesus is alive!’[2]

Because Jesus is alive we believe Margaret is with Jesus in Paradise right now. Because Jesus was raised to life again we believe that Margaret will be raised to life again. Therefore, we believe that we will see Margaret again in Paradise and that we will be raised again with her on the Last Day.

Therefore, “Let not your heart be troubled!”

[1] Neil Cullan McKinlay, From Mason to Minister: Through the Lattice, Nordskog Publishing Inc., Ventura, California, 2011, pp. 104-5.
[2] Jamie Stuart, A Glasgow Bible, Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1997, (Reprint 2013), pp. 136-8.

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