The day of Luke's memorial service, I can remember waking up that morning excited. I was excited to celebrate my boy's life. I was excited to show our friends and family the pictures of him. I was excited to share all that the Lord had done. But, in the midst of that excitement, I was scared. I was worried that I wouldn't make it through speaking about my son. How am I going to stand on that stage and share my thoughts and share the letter I had written to Luke? I didn't think I was strong enough to do that. But, I knew I would regret it my whole life if I didn't speak about him and all God had done.
This service was planned by Justin and I. We had no control over all that happened with Luke and the condition he had, but we DID have control over how we honored him that night. We took a lot of time carefully planning what songs we wanted sung, what Scripture we wanted read, who would speak and what would they talk about, what Justin and I would share, what we wanted the programs to look like, what keepsakes of Luke's would we have sitting out for people to look at, what desserts we wanted served afterwards, etc. We took great pride in how Luke was honored and more importantly how God was honored.
My brother-in-law Jordan opened the service by welcoming everyone and sharing how Justin and I took on that very stage 7 years prior as we exchanged wedding vows. Who knew we'd be back a little over 7 years later for our son's memorial service? We then sang two songs, led by our friend Andy Scott along with Erin Burchwell on piano and Matt Hawley on violin. We all sang "Rock of Ages" and "Lord, I Need You". It was beautiful and they did an amazing job. After the worship time, Jordan spoke. He spoke of how Luke's life was both effective and affective. He did so good and I was so proud to call him my brother. A lot of people told us after that they loved what Jordan shared. After that, we had our family read various Scripture passages that we chose. Ones that had great meaning to us the months leading up to Luke's birth.
After the Scripture reading, our pastor, Lee Davis, spoke. He did amazing and so many people commented about how good his message was! When Lee was done, it was Justin and I's turn to share. I remember my hands being very sweaty as I was nervous to get up in front of all those people. But I was excited to talk about my boy. I shared about all God had done as far as answered prayers goes; specific prayers were answered along the way. I then read a letter I wrote to Luke. I had moments where I had to stop and compose myself, but for the most part I thought I did well considering the circumstances. I could feel God carrying me through that moment. Justin also shared and did an amazing job! The whole service is recorded if anyone ever wants to listen to everything!
When the service was over, I can't tell you how many people came up to us and told us what an amazing job we did. How it "was the best memorial service they'd ever been to" and how it was so honoring and glorifying to the Lord. That's exactly what we wanted. We wanted people to walk away feeling like they got to know our boy and at the same time they got to know the Lord and love Him more because of Luke's life. We also prayed that those who didn't know Christ, would walk away from that night a changed person. We pray, even now, that someone would come to know the Lord because of Luke. What an awesome thing that would be!
After the service, we had a coffee and dessert reception. Our dear friend, Brett Fife, who is the executive chef at Lindey's restaurant here in Columbus, made ALL of the desserts for us! 200 brownies and 200 cookies. The local Starbucks here in Delaware donated ALL of the coffee when they heard about the service. Nikki at Starbucks spear headed that effort and we were so thankful for that! Talk about a burden off of our shoulders. Everything just went so smoothly.
I hope and pray that the Lord doesn't bring us through the loss of another child. I don't think I could bear it. But, even though He allowed us to walk through this fire, we can honestly say that He has been most faithful and most good to us. Ive seen His hand and His loving care for me, us, more than ever. I've never loved Justin more than I do now. I've never had to cling to Jesus more than I have in the last year. God has been near, has been loving, has been kind, has been faithful. I pray that the pain of losing Luke lessens, but I pray that the fellowship and sweet times with the Lord never ends.
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