Dear Rose Park,
On Monday morning I officiated the memorial service for Charles ‘Bud’ Freehouse. If you knew Bud, then you knew he was almost always paired with his beloved bride, Nell. Even their names were synonymous and rolled off the tongue together, ‘Bud & Nell.’ Nell passed away on on April 11, 2021 and Bud passed away on June 8, 2022. They were married for 75 years and then they were apart for 423 days.
423 days pales in comparison to 75 years, but those 423 days felt like an eternity to Bud. 423 days without holding his wife’s hand. 423 days without watching a show together and praying before a meal together. 423 days without kissing each other goodnight or telling a story or a joke to one another. As I visited with Bud over those 423 days, we spoke about his love for Nell and his loneliness without her. In what became my final visit with Bud, we prayed together that if it might be God’s will, Bud was ready to go to his heavenly home and be reunited with Nell in the presence of their Savior.
In the liturgy for Christian Burial, a prayer is read that sounds like this:
We give You thanks for Your servants, who, having lived this life in faith, will live eternally with You. We especially thank you for ____, for the gift of his/her life, for the grace You have given him/her, for all in him/her that was good and kind and faithful. We thank You that for ____ death is past, pain is ended, and he/she has entered the joy You have prepared in the company of all the saints.
I prayed this prayer at Nell’s memorial service and I prayed this prayer at Bud’s memorial service. Of course, we mourn Bud’s passing but we also celebrate an answered pray. We celebrate that those 423 days have come to an end. We celebrate the gift of Bud’s life. We celebrate the grace God displayed to him. We celebrate that for Bud death is past, pain is ended, and he has entered the joy God has prepared for him in the company of all the saints…and in the company of one saint in particular.
It’s my hope and prayer that we might all celebrate the day when we are called to our heavenly home. We aren’t promised how long we get on this earth, but whether it’s for 5 years or 95 years our earthly lives pale in comparison to eternity with God Father, Son, & Spirit. So, as we ponder the words of comfort near the end of life, let us never forget the words of covenant declared at the waters of baptism:
For you Jesus Christ came into the world; for you He died and for you He conquered death. All this He did for you, even though you know nothing of it as yet. We love because God first loved us…child of the covenant, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.
Bud was sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own, not for 423 days or even 75 years, but forever.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark
Photo by Şahin Sezer Dinçer on Unsplash