wAgnes said ‘yes’
ould have …to a baptism & a funeral
By Julie B. Sevig Photos compliments of Studio T Imagery
C
ora Azalea Van Steenhuyse was only 5 weeks old when she met Agnes Thompson, her great- grandmother. Thompson, 96, had suffered a stroke
and Cora’s parents, Tessa and Tyler Van Steenhuyse from Urbandale, Iowa, brought Cora to the hospital so the two could meet. “We were there three hours after getting the call from
my mom,” said Tessa Van Steenhuyse, Thompson’s granddaughter. “We went with the hope of making it in time for Grandma to meet her .… “I put Cora’s hand inside Grandma’s and they laid
sleeping like that for about an hour. Later I asked Grand- mother to squeeze my hand if she could hear me and if she had felt Cora, and she did. I’m certain she knew we were both there.” As the family waited at Thompson’s bedside and pondered the coming days, their pastor, Mark C. Urlaub of Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Vinton, Iowa, suggested they consider having Cora’s baptism at the funeral if Thompson’s death should come before the scheduled rite.
The family wondered how a baptism and funeral would work together. Would the death cast a pall over the joyful event? Or would the baby take attention away from the deceased? Oddly, it made sense, Urlaub said. “God has a way of mixing things that don’t seem to go together,” he said.
Sevig is a section editor of The Lutheran. 14 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
“God takes things that are opposite and reverses them. In baptism we are promised: ‘God frees us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.’ And the funeral liturgy continues: ‘For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.’ ” So people came to a funeral and found a baptism, he said, and the baptism gave way to a funeral. In the sermon, Urlaub asked: “Who really died? Is
it not Agnes, whose ashes are with us? Or is it, in fact, Cora Azalea, who died to sin and death today in bap- tismal waters? Who is it that has been brought to life? Is it not Cora Azalea, who has been made a child of God, daughter of the promise, heir of salvation? Or is it Agnes, whose mortality has put on immortality? And the answer is ‘yes.’ Yes to all of it. Yes, we die. Yes, we live. Yes, we live and we die to live more. Yes, we mourn. And, yes, we rejoice.” Urlaub is certain Thompson would have said “yes” to having her great-granddaughter’s baptism at her funeral. “Not just in a circle of life sort of way, but she understood that water and ashes go together. She believed
Cora was able to snuggle with her great- grandma at the hospital before Thomp- son died. The ring on Thompson’s finger provided Cora’s mother, Tessa Van Steen- huyse, with “something old” on her wed- ding day.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52