So, my prayer life has changed a little in the last few years. There have been running lists of prayers answered… quiet, silent prayers of desperation… and lists. Long, sometimes rambling lists of thanks. Because even in the valley of the shadow, there are always things… there are always ways that the Best Giver blesses us, and so I say, simply… thank You.
Thank You Lord, for this day. For on this day, we celebrate this man. Thank You for his name. This boy-man formidably named the same as Bulgarian emperors and Russian tsars, both great and terrible.. but also coming from the Greek form of John, the one whom Jesus loved as brother. Thank You for loving Ivan, to the cross and to death, and back to life again, Jesus. Thank You for loving him that much. Thank You for this boy raised farming, always arms deep in soil and cows, and milking in the centurion barn on cold mornings before the sun was up, and then walked to the country school. Thank You, Father, for his child-heart remembering doing the dishes and singing his mother’s saddest orphan song. Thank you for his life lived when electricity was just 10 cents a kilowatt hour, and for the mindset to shut it off after 10 hours and finish the month off with kerosene. Thank You for this boy grown man, who always seems to have listened twice as much as he spoke, and when he did speak, well… you’d better hope that you were listening. Thank You for his God-wisdom poured out. Thank You for this man who loved a half-pint of a woman named precious stone, whose waist he could wrap around with his hands when they married. Thank You Lord, for their years of dedication and for their always-honoring-promise to love one another in You. Thank You for his never failing her, when her memory failed to remember, for his always steady, never-leaving, love at her side. Thank You lord, for their three sons, and a final daughter, for their families. Thank You for ten grandchildren, for hills down to Elk Lake waters, and purple bathrooms. For their growing families and for sixteen great grandchildren, for the unforgettable stories he told them. For his Lake Superior and UP stories, mouse dippers, shotgun Christmas trees, and catch a tiger by his tail stories. For the times he kissed them and held them on his knee and called the boys “Men under Construction.” Thank you Lord, for his too warm apartment, for cribbage, and 15 -2 -4 -6 and a pair is 8. Creator God, we thank you for his water for the birds and squirrels, and for his turquoise rock and copper gifts. For his rattlesnake skin wrapped straw hat, and for his teeth- they were his own you know- for his firm hand shakes, his hugs, and his selfie smiles. Thank You for 97 years lived fully, lived well, and for Your glory, Lord. Father, I thank You for There’s a Song in the Air. And I thank You for All through the night. Thank You, Jesus, for the kisses he has already given our daughter for us. Thank You, Lord, for Your blessed assurance, because this isn’t just good-bye, Grandpa… it’s until Heaven. Thank You, Lord, for until Heaven.
I am honored to have shared this at my Grandfather’s Funeral.
Ivan Bruce Hoopfer
February 12, 1919 – September 27, 2016
