What Jay said at Isaac’s memorial service:
Hello, I am Jay Miller, Isaac’s Dad. To all of you who are Isaac’s friends, I invite you to our home. Stop in and talk any time in the weeks, the months, the years ahead. Deborah and I would love to hear your stories about Isaac, and about yourselves. You also come with beautiful purposes written on your hearts, written on your souls, with possibilities only you can hold.
We spent years loving and raising Isaac and awoke last Saturday to news of his death. Immediately devastating. Long-term life changing. The precious, the irreplaceable—gone.
The law of sowing and reaping works even if one ignores it. Like gravity, it does not care if you are a Christian. My hope is in God’s word: that in everything God works for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.
The death of a young person tests our convictions. His death forces our real beliefs into the open. What is the meaning of life? Can Isaac’s death fit into it?
I serve a God of love and mercy who raised Jesus from the dead. Isaac’s whole life with us, and even before he came to us, was surrounded with grace and with God moving powerfully on his behalf. The loving merciful God kept our boy from an early death in Bolivia and placed him in a loving family. God gave him many friends, great experiences and opportunities, and meaningful work.
Our culture says that Isaac’s life was cut short, that his life was incomplete. Those thoughts assume we are masters of our own destiny. It assumes we can fix ourselves rather than God fixing us.
I will not let Isaac’s death erase the joyful memories of years gone by. God’s word says not one sparrow falls to the ground without our Father’s notice.
To find our own meaningfulness we must acknowledge our Creator. It is good for us to know we can do nothing. Why should we think death stumps God? It stumps us, not him. God does not make mistakes. He decided Isaac completed his purpose here on earth. Who is like God? Not one of us. God had a good plan for Isaac.
As a childless couple we waited and suffered for years before Isaac came to us. We had him with us twenty years. We believe we will all be together again in our far home. Our best wishes for you would be that you would be there, too.
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1 Corinthians 15
35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die,[j] this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.[k]
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?[l]”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.