Grandma's Graveside Sermon and Urn

My grandmother, Anna Jane Mittelstaedt, passed away Sept. 12th, 2010. I was asked to take an active role in her celebration of life by making her urn, as well as writing and delivering her graveside sermon. Attached are pictures of her urn as well as her graveside sermon.
God Bless,
Dios te bendiga,
Mitchell C. Mittelstaedt

            I would like to thank you all for gathering here today, I know that it means a lot to grandma. She was a great grandma, mother, wife, and a friend to all. A part of her will always be within each and every one of us as she touched us in many different ways. We have mourned our loss of her here with us on the earth for a few weeks now and we gather here today with mourning hearts and a tear in each of our eyes whether we choose to let that tear show or not. This is normal. It is a good thing to mourn and grieve the loss of Anna Jane. But even though she is gone physically from this earth, each one of us has those memories of her that we can hold dear to our hearts until the day when we meet her again.

Because death is not the end, there is a future and a hope for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior just as Anna Jane did. She lived her life in full demonstration of this, showing each one of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and friends the joy of living when we live within God’s will and purpose for our life-- not only in times of joy and celebration but even in pain and suffering. And because she lived her life in that confidence she will be raised from this grave, according to scripture, with a brand new, imperishable body, for eternity.  1 Thessalonians 4:13 says” But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus .For this we say to you by the way of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words”. If you believe these words of God given to us in scripture to be true, then you can join me in saying Amen. 

Mourning is such a personal thing.  For some it lasts  for just a few months, and for others it never completely ends.  Why is that?  Why is mourning so difficult?  It is an experience unlike any other because we were never created for separation.  Unfortunately, because of man’s fall, separation became the hallmark of man’s final experience.  But for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to scripture, we do not mourn without hope.  Because of the resurrection of our Lord, our confidence is that we too shall rise to the same newness of life that is now the joy and experience of  Anna Jane.  So it is that we should not leave  here with a heavy heart, but with the confidence that the personal faith that guided Anna Jane in life is the same faith that has safely delivered into the hands of her loving Savior.

In the name of Christ whom Anna Jane loved and served, we commit her remains to this resting place knowing that her spirit is with the Lord in His house of many mansions. And in so doing, we rest our hearts in fresh confidence upon the sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto life eternal through Christ Jesus our Lord.