A Tribute to Aunt Wilma (Winnie) Allan (1917-2019)
By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe
Ecclesiastes 3:4: “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a
time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
We weep and mourn at the thought of our lives without
Winnie, but we laugh and dance when we remember the joy she brought into our
lives.
The Psalmist reminds us that “Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy comes in the morning.”
Winnie walked in that knowledge. Her life was not without sorrow and
struggle. She endured the hardships and
embraced the joy. Nehemiah 8:10 teaches
us that the joy of the Lord is our strength.
How can we, too, embrace the joy in the midst of sorrow?
Two Latin phrases come to mind: carpe vita and carpe diem.
Carpe vita means to seize life. In seizing the opportunities of life, of both our earthly
life and our eternal life, we find the scope of God’s plan for us. Jesus defined that scope when He said that He
came that we might have life and have it ever more abundantly.
Carpe diem means
seize the day. While carpe
vita is the scope; carpe diem is the sequence. As we embrace the scope, the sequence of life opens before
us. Each day presents opportunities to know and to glorify our Lord in
our lives and to live abundantly in Him.
(Psalm 90:12) “So teach us to number our days, That we may
gain a heart of wisdom.” That is carpe diem.
The psalmist asked the Holy
Spirit to teach us to number (to value) our days. In valuing our days, in valuing our lifetime (which
includes eternity to come), we find a source of wisdom. I define wisdom as the ability
to make good decisions. It is a good
decision to be joyful: Proverbs 17:22 tells us that a merry heart does good
like a medicine.
Psalm 118: 24 is all about carpe diem. “This is the day which the Lord has made; I
will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Winnie rejoiced in each
day. As she has entered into eternity, I
sense Jesus saying to her, “Well, done good and faithful servant.”
Dr. Seuss, one of the greatest
philosophers of the twentieth century, is credited with saying, “Don’t cry
because it is over. Smile because it happened.”
I say, in the midst of our crying because Winnie has gone on to the next
chapter in her journey, let us smile and be thankful because she happened. She
happened to walk abundantly in this life for 102 years.
Well done, Winnie, well done.
