Personal Note: This encore post, written a year before we knew Kris was in her last days, captures my thoughts well today, as I now focus on the joy in the midst of grief I have that she is with Jesus today. Permit me to share it with you today:
For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
On this All Saints 2023, a flood of thoughts and emotions occupy my thoughts. Four years ago on Reformation day, Evangeline Charissa Keller was baptized into the name of the Triune God by her father in the NICU in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her entrance into the world was dramatic and the shadow in the back of my thoughts was the remote possibility that she, her mother, my daughter, and her father would be at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb by that day. The Lord had mercy and blessed the work of Doctors, Nurses and many others to perform near perfect procedures. They all came through well and thrived as I preached for my son-in-law that year’s All Saints divine service. It was as if the Holy Spirit whispered “not yet, not yet.” This year all are very well with them and a very bright four year old joins her seven year old sister in delighting and challenging her mother and father.
Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Then my thoughts turn to those who are now at the Feast, resting from their labors. My own grandparents and grandparents-in-law, who lived and prospered through incredibly hard times, kept the faith in their own … unique … ways, who were often living examples of saints and sinners at the same time. I remember my grandmother Smith reading from the big, KJV family Bible to me as a child on her lap. My grandmother Schneider and her aunt who gave me my first Greek New Testament as a confirmation gift. My parents and parents-in-law, troubled in troubled times, yet still kept their faith. My father, that bruised reed the Lord did not break. And now in 2023, my beloved wife, Kris, who loved me, her children and grandchildren through constant pain all of her life, produced endless beautiful and practical crafts that blessed many. Her straightforward, rock-hard faith was an inspiration to me and to many. All at rest with their Savior, two grandchildren whom the Good Shepherd folded in his arms while still in the womb along with others. Fathers and brothers in the faith that taught me and many others and laid the same stole of ministry on me as I have now laid on my son-in-law and spiritual sons. I am thankful for them and for their confessions, praying to be faithful to the Lord as they were.
O blest communion, fellowship divine,
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Seven years ago, I struggled with a massive infection in my heel. Several times I told my pastor that I still believed what I taught and confessed these thirty-seven years as I went to surgery. Later I was told that I was on the threshold of attending the Marriage Feast. It was as if the Holy Spirit said, “not yet, not yet.” In those few years, I have continued to preach, to teach, cared for my home congregation when our pastor was on the threshold himself, presided at the weddings of all of my children, seen all my grandchildren save one baptized with the same baptismal shell with which their parents and others were baptized, began to pass the baton on to four of my spiritual sons, welcomed a brand new pastor to our home congregation, and, with him, mentor vicars. God has blessed me more than I deserve.
The golden evening brightens in the west;
soon, soon to faithful warrior cometh rest;
sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
And now I reflect that I was blessed to celebrate All Saints Day with my wife thirty-four times, thankful for each day we were together, pray to thank the Lord for those safely home, pray after receiving the Lord’s Supper to thank him for my late wife, an ever-growing list of grandchildren, my children and their spouses. I will rejoice that this year I can still hold their hands, speak with them through the ether and see them all once in awhile. Soon, all too soon, the angels will come for me or one of them, to join those at the Feast as the Holy Spirit no longer says, “not yet” but the Lord Jesus says to one of us, welcome to the joy of your Father.
But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on his way.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Yet all too soon there will come to this veil of tears that day, whether we are here to see it or at the side of our Lord, when Jesus will return, destroy sin and death forever, call us all from our graves, make new the heavens and the earth and dry every tear from our eyes. Lord, should you tarry beyond the end of our time, let at last your angels come, to Abr’am’s bosom bear us home, that we may die unfearing. Come Lord Jesus, come!
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Revised this All Saints’ Day,
the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Twenty-Three
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