Thank you for Grace

Here is the prayer we wrote to say thank you for Grace. We used it at the thanksgiving service when we celebrated her life and ministry.

 

Heavenly Father the scriptures tell us that

“Precious in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his saints”

and in the homecall of Grace this temporal world has released to you a saint of exceptional preciousness. So as we here wrestle with the mystery of death we are confident that you bring certainty of life.

We thank you for Grace

  • to Carey and me she has been simply ‘mum’
  • to others of us here she’s been an aunt, grandmother, friend, co-worker and confidente
  • and so many of us knew that she was Grace by name and grace by nature.
  • we thank you for Grace

We thank you for her faith

  • the simplicity of her trust has been a challenge to all of us who have made walking with God too complicated.
  • the profundity of her faith has been a challenge to all of us who resort to slick answers to the complexities of life
  • the clairy of her faith is a shining beacon to all of us who haven’t yet embraced the light of Christ that she lived by
  • we thank you for her faith

We thank you for her love

  • a love that embraced young and old alike
  • a love that was outgoing to the strugglers, the marginalised and the mentally ill
  • a love that created an open home where visitors were welcome, where the family was cherished and where her marriage thrived.
  • a love that was a reflection of the love of Jesus that motivated her from her earliest days
  • we thank you for her love.

We thank you for

  • the countless cups of coffee she brewed
  • the meals she crafted
  • the guest rooms she prepared
  • the poetry she wrote
  • and all with the motive of blessing those around her with the love of Jesus
  • she has left us an enduring legacy that we do not deserve.

And if there are any feelings of regret about things that we failed to do or to say, Lord, grant your forgiveness.

  • grant us healing where there is hurt
  • grant us joy where there is sadness
  • grant us hope where there is doubt
  • so that our grieving may be neither overwhelming nor unending.

We commit our souls into your hands to live in a way that honours the memory of Grace and honours you, the God she served so selflessly

We ask this in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ

Amen.

/by