The 6 Bears: my Grandpa's funeral

I got a call and message from my dad on August 26, 2017 whereby the tone of his voice I could tell something was wrong. I called him back and he told me that my Grandpa, his father, had died sometime the previous night. Such sad news. I was thankful that I had just seen him a few months before at my uncle's funeral. So we had another trip back to Minnesota for a funeral on September 7, the day after Noah got his braces on. It sure is a bummer that there have been two funerals so close together and that death is the reason we've been getting together.

A photo of the K. cousins through the years, the bottom featuring all of us minus Stephanie from this trip.

This time, all of us, including Terry, went. We left around 5am, got McDonalds, and hit the road. Even an hour outside of Rapid in "bushland" the moon was still up.

Evie entertained them all by making tents for everyone. Or maybe that was just to try to keep the boys quiet so she could nap...

We arrived at Canby a little early and took a break at the park while we waited for the graveside service. We followed Nancy, Megan, and Jeff to the same cemetery where my Grandma is buried. There is Grandpa's red urn. It is such a sad thing that an entire life of 94 years can be summed up in so small a container. Life is so much more meaningful than that red urn. And yet, if there is no life after death, then the contents of that urn are meaningless. What is the point if this is all there is? Everything is pointless if there is no God who orders every detail and has a purpose and oversees and loves and saves. If He's not real, there's no reason for anything. Why be sad about death at all? But that is ridiculous. We hate death, we rail against it. It is so unnatural!

My brother shared some scripture at the graveside where only family where present.

The front row has my dad, my mom, Nancy is unpictured, Jeff, and Dan. I am in the second row with Evie and my cousin Megan, then Noah. My cousins Heather and Laura are pictured too.

Once finished at the cemetery we drove to Madison, north of Canby, where the service would be held at the assisted living center where my Grandpa had lived ever since 2012 when we moved into his house. This is what his obituary said:

"Chapel Ted was born August 20, 1923 in Jostedal, Sogn, Norway to Nils and Kristina “Stina” K. He immigrated to USA at the age of 5. He graduated from Madison High School in May 1942. He enlisted in the Army in Feb. 1945, served in Okinawa, and was discharged Dec. 1946. He married Ardis M. of Canby, MN on April 9, 1949. They resided on a dairy farm north of Canby where he also was involved in trucking. They raised 4 children there and moved to Rapid City, SD in 1970. Initially he was a real estate broker in SD. Then he did cross-country trucking as an owner-operator until retirement. April, 2012, he moved to Hilltop Residence assisted living in Madison, MN. In his lifetime, Ted enjoyed playing ball for the “Burr Bombers”, traveling and sightseeing with his wife, hunting, collecting guns, target shooting and

picture puzzles."

There is his "Burr Bombers" jersey (pictured to the left above the "LIFE" quote), which is once again sad to me that his warm living body once wore it, but now he is gone. Such a small thing to represent an entire life.

Some photos.

I loved this wedding photo of my Grandpa and Grandma. Seeing them young made me tear up.

For the funeral, the first to speak was my Grandpa's nephew, who had accompanied him on a trip back to Norway in the 90s. Though I remembered that trip, I learned quite a few things I hadn't before. There were so many things about him I didn't know.

My brother shared that same thought when he spoke for the funeral message, how we wished he had known Grandpa better and had taken the time to ask him some deeper, more penetrating questions. Nathan shared the gospel in crystal clarity, that it's not by good works that we're saved. How do you go to heaven? It doesn't matter if you go to church, if you were confirmed, if you were baptized. After all, does walking into a garage make you a car? No more does walking into a church make you a Christian.

What matters is realizing you are a sinner in the path of the wrath of God, that you cannot be good enough for a holy and terrifyingly perfect God, and you cry out to Him for mercy and grace in the person of Jesus Christ, believing that Jesus came to live the perfect life that we can't, that He died in our place to satisfy the wrath and punishment of God. Jesus literally took our place. We were guilty before God's judgment seat. But instead of condemning us to the hell we deserve, He got down from his judge's seat, and took our punishment, death. He then gives us Jesus' reward - eternal life, literally life in Jesus, reconnecting with the Lord who made us and in whom we are restless until we find Him, hope and help and mercy for this life, and hope for being reunited with a risen Jesus when we die. Jesus is the only man who proved He was telling the truth by rising from the dead. Mohammad is dead. Budda is dead. Joseph Smith is dead. Jesus is not dead. He's alive. He rose from the dead and conquered it, thereby fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies about him. And those who trust in Him alone are alive with Him too, though they leave their bodies behind. But He will bring life back to those bodies as well and we will enjoy the inheritance that Jesus earned for Himself and for us - eternal life in the kingdom, worshipping the Lord whom we love more than life itself. He is good.

After the funeral I was visiting with Nathan when a woman came over to tell him how proud our Grandma would have been. She had been a childhood friend of our Grandma and they had remained close through marriage, child rearing, moves, and old age - they talked on the phone all the time. She said Grandma had prayed for Nathan (and I know she prayed for me and for all of us as well) and would have been so happy to see how Nathan had grown up to be a preacher. It was so touching to see this old woman who was the same age as my Grandma would have been. It was almost like seeing her again. She meant a lot of my brother and I.

After the funeral and a light dinner the family went outside to remake the cousin photo that we have done every time we get together. The only person missing was my sister, which is why there's a gap between Heather and I.

left to right: Megan, Laura, Kara, me, Heather, Nathan, David, and Tyler

This photo was the last time we were all together, in 2008 for Grandma's funeral.

The time before that when we were all together was when I graduated from high school in 2000.

And the original photo is from I don't know when in our childhood, in the front yard of my grandparent's house. It's so strange to drive by that house now that someone else is living there.