Select Page

This Old Cowgirl Podcast Episode 002

Close The Gate

If you have a farmer/rancher in your life you will want to be sure and hear the poem at the end of today’s podcast that I read at my Dad’s memorial service!  You may pick up some ideas for how to honor your Farmer’s memory & personality at a memorial service and a simple way to gather memories from others!

Here is a pic of the beautiful urn my uncle made, as well as the flower arrangement I mentioned. Forgot to take the pic at the church of course!  So this was a couple days later…..I think one of the great-grandkids took some of the flowers/wheat as there was more before!

I designed the program for Dad’s memorial service, and I just love how it turned out!  The inside had the obituary on the left side…which we did NOT read at the service!  I know most do, but we figured most people there know how to read, and probably read it already!  Dad would have approved of not taking time to read that!   The other side had the service along with the scripture:

“And regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don’t want you in the dark any longer.  First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word.  Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (msg)

The background photo of the front is one of the last harvests of wheat before he retired.

This is one of my favorite pics of Dad….checking the corn that was just harvested in the old red grain truck!

This is the version of “Suppertime” that we played at the beginning of the service.  I put the lyrics below the video.

Many years ago in days of childhood
I used to play till evening shadows come
Then winding down an old familiar pathway
I heard my mother call at set of sun

Come home, come home, its suppertime
The shadows lengthen fast
Come home, come home its suppertime
We’re goin’ home at last

In visions now I see her standing yonder
And her familiar voice I hear once more
The banquet table’s ready up in heaven
And it’s suppertime upon the golden shores

Come home, come home, its suppertime
The shadows lengthen fast
Come home, come home its suppertime
We’re goin’ home at last

NOTE:  In the Joey + Rory version they didn’t include the spoken part of the Jim Reeves original song.  I read them at the beginning of the video:  Here they are below:

Some of the fondest memories of my childhood
Were woven around suppertime
When my mother used to call
From the back steps of the old homeplace
Come on home now son its suppertime

Ahhhh, but I’d loved to hear that once more
But you know for me time has woven the realization of
The truth that’s even more thrilling and that’s when
The call comes up from the portals of glory
To come home for its suppertime

When all Gods children shall gather around the table
Of the Lord, Himself and the greatest suppertime of them all

Here is the link to the post for Dad’s HOBO Stew that we made out at the farm after the Memorial Service in Dad’s honor

 

FINALLY….  here is the poem “Close The Gate”

Close the Gate 
By Nancy Kraayenhof

For this one farmer the worries are over, lie down and rest your head,
Your time has been and struggles enough, put the tractor in the shed.
Years were not easy, many downright hard, but your faith in God transcended,
Put away your tools and sleep in peace. The fences have all been mended.
You raised a fine family, worked the land well and always followed the Son,
Hang up your shovel inside of the barn; your work here on earth is done.
A faith few possess led your journey through life, often a jagged and stony way,
The sun is setting, the cattle are all bedded, and here now is the end of your day.
Your love of God’s soil has passed on to your kin; the stories flow like fine wine,
Wash off your work boots in the puddle left by blessed rain one final time.
You always believed that the good Lord would provide and He always had somehow,
Take off your gloves and put them down, no more sweat and worry for you now.
Your labor is done, your home now is heaven; no more must you wait,
Your legacy lives on, your love of the land, and we will close the gate.