23rd Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;

He leadeth me beside still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth 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 thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.  (KJV)

Reflections on the 23rd Psalm and Louella Stephenson

These are words known to probably all of us present here today.  In my experience, I heard them as a child.  I memorized them along with the 100th Psalm and was given a pocket-sized Old Testament as my reward.  We often hear this Psalm during the liturgical season of Lent.  And we almost always hear this Psalm at the time of death.

These words provide us with great comfort.  They are words of confidence and assurance:

-  we find rest in the comfort of fertile pastures, as our homes and families provide us with a place of rest, rejuvenation, and security;

-  we know the peacefulness of still water, as our homes are places of peace and tranquility;

-  our souls our constantly refreshed, as we know that our souls will be lifted up and filled with the joy of family and friends;

The words of the 23rd Psalm provide us with directions for our lives.  We know that we can be led in the paths of righteousness by the guiding Spirit of God's Love: goodness, decency, virtue are ours when we follow the path of the Spirit of Love.

These words provide us with comfort.  These words tell us that, even in what might be seen as our darkest hour - as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death - that we need not fear.  We are not alone.  God's Love is with us.  Think of the uses a shepherd makes with her staff.  It is a tool she uses to direct, rescue, and provide support.  In the words of the 23rd Psalm, we are assured that God's Love will direct, rescue, and provide us support - especially when we are facing the biggest challenge of our living - our deaths and the death of a person so dear and close to us as is Louella Stephenson.

Yet, we are assured by the 23rd Psalm that there is more to come.  It is not over, here.  There is a banquet awaiting us.  We have been blest with abundance measured in Love - our cups do run over!  Louella's live was full of the love she shared with her family and friends and of love she received in return.  Such bounty as was hers is beyond measure.  Louella shows us that, if we open ourselves to Love, goodness and mercy will follow us throughout our lives.  This is not a promise of an easy life of goody-goody-ness; what is is is the assurance that our lives will bring others goodness and mercy - it is a promise that our lives can be a gift to others.

All of us gathered in this place today know that Louella Stephenson lived a live of bringing goodness and mercy to her family and friends.  Goodness and mercy did follow her - and still does, as we share our thoughts and reflections of her today.  And goodness and mercy shall follow her into the House of the Lord and will be with her forever.

Of this we are given assurance.  And this we do believe.

A poem by Emily Dickinson

As imperceptibly as Grief

The Summer lapsed away-

Too imperceptible at last

To seem like Perfidy-

A Quietness distilled

As Twilight long begun,

Or Nature spending with herself

Sequestered Afternoon-

The Dusk drew earlier in-

The Morning foreign shone-

A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,

As Guest, that would be gone-

And thus, without a Wing

Or service of a Keel

Our Summer made her light escape

Into the Beautiful.

1 Corinthians 13.1-13

Leader:                         If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love,

Family and Friends:           I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Leader:                         And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love,

Family and Friends:           I am nothing.

Leader:                         If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love,

Family and Friends:           I gain nothing.

Leader:                         Love is patient;

Family and Friends:           Love is kind;

Leader:                         Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.

Family and Friends:           It does not insist on its own way;

Leader:                         It is not irritable or resentful;

Family and Friends:           It does not rejoice in wrongdoing; but rejoices in the truth.

Leader:                         It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Family and Friends:           Love never ends.

Leader:                         But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;

Family and Friends:           But when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

Leader:                         When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;

Family and Friends:           When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

Leader:                         For now we see in a mirror, dimly,

Family and Friends:           but then we will see face to face.

Leader:                         Now I know only in part;

Family and Friends:           Then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

All:                                And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (NRSV)

MaryLou will read “The Next Place” written by Warren Hanson

One of the people for whom Louella became a second mother is quoted as having said, "She (Louella) is one person about whom you couldn't think or say a bad thing."  In talking with family and friends, and as I remember her from so many years ago, those words really do perfectly describe Louella Stephenson.

Nothing bad can be thought or said about Louella.  One doesn't have to look too far to discover why this is true.  Why?  Because goodness and mercy followed her, all the days of her life.

Louella's was a life of goodness and mercy.  To say that is in no way an attempt to sugar coat what she lived through in her life.  Louella saw and experienced a lot - more than many of us can even imagine that we could endure.  Just think of it!  While a teenager, she experienced the death of a younger sister - a sister who was so very close to her in age and in their love.  Her father has died.  In her mid-twenties, she lost a dear, infant daughter in an automobile accident, and she had to endure the unimaginable emotional and physical repercussions of that tragic occurrence every day for the remainder of her life.  And just last year, she lost her dear, only son, Keith.  How can one person carry such a load and not be crushed?  Who can imagine it?

But you knew Louella.  Louella lived her life in spite of these burdens.  She lived her life through these burdens.  With her life, she showed us that it is possible to carry a heavy load - one almost unimaginable - and yet, she showed us that it is possible to live so that goodness and mercy does follow.

Louella wrote a lot.  She wrote down things that she found in books; she wrote down poems and verses she found on cards and that she had heard on the radio or television.  One can quickly see that what she wrote down is a clear reflection of how she lived her life - these are clues to the guiding principles that shaped her view of the world and her role in the world.  We can see that Louella believed that “Within the shelter of a family is a peach not to be found elsewhere.”  How do we know that these words guided her life?  We know that Louella's life was one of complete dedication to and love for her family.  Within the love of her family was the place where she became that truly unique, loving, wonderful, individual - like none other - that most special person who loved and was loved.

Louella wrote, "I feel secure in a kitchen; I like being in a house; I like Christmas trees, pumpkins and tulips.”  We know Louella loved her home.  She loved the mornings.  Her kitchen was a gathering place for family and friends.  She welcomed all to her table.  Her Christmas tree was in the window until Spring, a reminder to everyone that giving and loving was not an event limited to just a few days of the year.  She loved her flower garden and the freshness and beauty that a blooming flower, sparkling with dew can bring to a morning and to a life.

Louella had written down that “the path I took made me who I am.”  I believe that Louella knew that it was the completeness of her life experiences that made her who she became, for how could she have written such a thing - “The path I took made me who I am.”  Believing this, Louella acknowledges all the pain and sorrow that was a part of her life.  Knowing this, Louella acknowledges the love and the joy that she experienced growing up.  Knowing this, Louella turned her love toward her family and her friends and warmly and willingly provided them with the comfort of her love and the wholeness of her life.   Knowing this, she experienced the greatest gift of all - the experience God's Love.

May God bless our beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother,  adopted mother, and friend, Louella Stephenson.

Family reflections.

“Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn’s rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the star that shines at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there, I did not die”

                                    Author Unknown

Benediction: And now, may the peace that is ours in the love and fellowship of family and friends, and the blessing that is ours when we share with one another the love that is God, be among us and remain with us always. Amen.