We buried my grandma, Irene Paulson, on Saturday, December 7, 2019. I was asked to speak at her funeral. As I thought about it and prayed how I could best honor her, I felt God saying to me, "Just say what she would want people to know. Tell them about Jesus." So I did. The following is the eulogy I wrote and read at her funeral to honor my family's matriarch and to pay tribute to her steadfast devotion to Jesus.
Today we all gather together to
remember and celebrate a very special woman, my grandma. What a joyous privilege
it is to honor her today, to laugh together, and to talk about the things we
loved about her. Especially at this time of year, during the Christmas season
when we’re celebrating the birth of Jesus.
I was very blessed to grow up with
my grandma close by, being a big part of my life. I have a lot of fond memories
of Sunday dinners she cooked up for us at the farmhouse. I saw her every Sunday
here, in this very church, my entire childhood and into young adulthood. She came
to my band & choir concerts, sporting events, and birthday parties. Like
any loving grandparent, she enjoyed supporting all of her grandkids in their
extra-curricular activities. She saw a lot of wrestling matches, football
games, basketball games, and volleyball matches. She attended all sorts of school
concerts. She really enjoyed watching her grandkids sing and perform.
Many years ago, before our family
exploded in size, we would all pile into Grandma and Grandpa’s farmhouse to
celebrate Christmas. I remember there were years when some of the adults would
sit down at Grandma’s dining room table for a game of Trivial Pursuit while we
were there for Christmas, usually playing in pairs. Us kids would stand behind
the chairs, gathered around, listening to the game being played. And whoever
was teamed up with Grandma, usually won. She knew so many things! I remember
even as a young girl realizing how smart my grandma was.
Besides being smart, the other
thing people probably noticed pretty quickly about Grandma as they got to know
her was that she loved Jesus. Her faith was a huge part of her life.
When Grandpa was alive, he would
read out loud a devotion from Our Daily Bread and then the passage of Scripture
referenced for that day’s devotion. He did this every day when his family was
seated around the dinner table. This was a challenging thing to sit through as
a kid. Because you had to be quiet and sit still. We would constantly be “shushed”
as Grandpa’s baritone voice read Bible verses before he prayed for the meal.
But this consistent action of inviting God into their home and pausing to
recognize that every good and perfect gift is from above, as it says in the book
of James, was a priority in my grandparent’s lives. And it was started as an
act of worship because my grandma wanted God to be honored in her home. She was
the one who insisted on family devotion time.
If Grandma knew you by name, she
prayed for you. And she would tell you so. There were so many Sundays that I
sat right down there, next to her. And when the time of the service would come
to talk about prayer requests, she would sit there with pen and paper, writing
down the prayer requests so she could later remember and be intentional in her
prayer time at home.
When she was in her 80s, Grandma
had a couple of her teenage grandkids approach her and ask if she would be
willing to lead them in a Bible study. And guess what. She opened up her apartment
to her grandkids and their friends and led them in a Bible study. What a
special time that must have been. I would imagine that a woman in her 80s and teenagers
don’t have a whole lot of common ground. Except that they all recognized they
needed Jesus in their lives.
Because Grandma passed away during
the Christmas season, I’ve been thinking a lot about past Christmases. Once the
Paulson family had too many people to fit into a house, we moved our Christmas
celebration right here, to Reeve Church. Grandma loved her Savior. And one of
her greatest desires was to have everyone she loved also have a personal relationship
with Jesus. There were many Christmases where we would gather, and Grandma
would share the gospel message. She spoke about how Jesus died for each of us.
How we all need to confess our sin to God, believe that Jesus died on the cross
for us, and then rose again and is alive today. She told us that Jesus was the
only way to heaven as it says in John 14:6. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the
truth, and the life. No one comes through the Father except through me.” She
wanted to make sure her family knew Jesus loves us, that he died for us, that
not one of us is beyond his grip of saving grace. Grandma knew the joy of
serving God and being sold out to him. She wanted everyone to also know and
experience that joy. To have a daily relationship with him.
My grandma is in heaven today. Of
that we’re certain. And it’s not because she had a stellar church attendance record.
Sitting in church doesn’t get you into heaven. And it’s not because she taught
Sunday School years ago or lead a Bible study for teenagers. Your works do not
get you into heaven. And it wasn’t because she was sweet and read her Bible so
much she knew it forward and backward. You can’t earn your way into heaven. It
wasn’t her parents’ faith, her husbands’ faith, or anyone else’s faith that got
her to heaven. You don’t get there by association. It was because she confessed
in her heart that she was a sinner. We all are. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have
sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” She put her trust in Jesus. Her
salvation was the foundation of her faith. All that other stuff, going to
church, praying, serving others, reading the Bible. Those were the building
blocks she stacked on the foundation to build a beautiful life chasing hard after
the heart of God.
Like I said before, all Grandma
wanted was for her family to love and serve Jesus. And a lot of us do. Not because
Irene Paulson said so and we did it for her. But because we’ve recognized our
need for Jesus and have been changed by the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Grandma died on Monday. That night,
when I put my five-year-old daughter to bed, I told her that Great-Grandma
Paulson had died. Betsy cried a little bit and then, as most five-year-old do,
she had some questions. In the weeks leading up to Grandma’s death, Betsy had a
lot of questions about God, Satan, Heaven, hell, the cross, and Jesus. The
things she is learning in Sunday School and Wednesday night kids church is
starting to resonate with her and she’s starting to understand the gospel.
Monday night, after talking about it, Betsy asked, “Will I go to Heaven?” And I
again told her what we all need to do to go to Heaven, as we had been talking about
the previous weeks. Betsy then decided she wanted to confess her sin and ask Jesus
into her heart. I think Grandma would be delighted to know that the day she saw
the face of her Savior in Heaven, her great-granddaughter accepted Christ and
started her own faith journey. And that is the miracle of the gospel! It’s something
a young child can understand and recognize their need for Jesus. And yet the
gospel is so complex that a relationship with Jesus can be carried out until you’re
91 years old! Even at 91, Grandma was still coming to church to worship with
her friends and family. She was still learning by attending Bible study. She
was still spending time with God by reading the Bible and having prayer time.
She was STILL chasing hard after the heart of God. So what JOY she must have
experienced when she was ushered into Heaven and heard what Jesus said in
Matthew 25:21, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
