BUT MY IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY
May 29, 1995
By Mark Darrah
You have heard the obituary of Lynn Robinson but you know, an obituary really doesn’t tell us very much, does it? Oh, it tells us the important dates, the important events, the important people, but it doesn’t tell us all the important things about this person who lived with us for too short of time on this earth.
The obituary doesn’t tell us about the exuberant little girl Lynn Robinson was. Her brother, Ralph, tells us she loved to do cartwheels and could do them just about all afternoon.
The obituary doesn’t tell us about that special moment almost sixty years ago when, at a church social, she met the man she would marry.
The obituary doesn’t tell us about the day-after-day devotion she had for her oldest, and most beloved, son, Roy.
It doesn’t tell us either about how she raised her family to work hard, to do what’s right, and to believe in God.
It doesn’t tell us about the twinkle she got in her eye when she told us something amusing or when she laughed.
It doesn’t remind us of the delight we heard in her voice or in her soul when she sang or enjoyed music.
The obituary doesn’t mention the nights after her children were grown when she would wonder where all her children were and she would pray for their safety.
It can’t capture the way she would tell a simple story and draw a life’s lesson from it.
It can’t capture her love for animals. Several years ago she bought a mess of chickens because she liked taking care of them. Nobody wanted her to have them. They were a mess. They were loud. They were dirty. She didn’t need them. But as her son, Ronnie, said yesterday, “I hated those chickens until she was gone.”
No, an obituary can’t tell everything.
It can’t tell of the compassion she felt for the men and the women she visited in jail.
It can’t tell of the solid rock faith she had in her God and his word.
And, it can’t really tell of her never ending hymn of joy. You know how it goes. She would be telling a story and then she would sigh and say, “My, isn’t it a beautiful day? You know, we have so much to be thankful for.” And we’d look out the window and it would be raining pitchforks and hammer handles or it would be so cold and dark that an Eskimo would want to move to Florida. We’d think, “How can she think this is a beautiful day?” but then we’d realize she was right. We have so much to be thankful for. It was her hymn of joy but it was also her hymn of faith and endurance because when the day was the darkest or when things seemed to be so wrong they could never be right again, she would simply say, “My, isn’t it a beautiful day? You know, we have so much to be thankful for.”
So as we celebrate the life of Lynn Robinson, here and beyond, let us not forget “WE HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR.”
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