Gladys Louise (Hamblin) Clark
December 17, 2014
Funeral Services
And Job died, an old man, and full of days. (Job 42:17 ESV)
I was reading this text some time back and the turn of phrase, “an old man, and full of days,” felt oddly redundant. Was the writer saying that, “he was an old man full of many days?” Was the writer saying that, “he was old man, a very old man?” Was this a typical Hebraism of repeating things just to emphasize the patriarch’s longevity? Or, was the writer saying that Job lived to be old, and his days were full, or that his days were filled with good?
This phrase is not unique to Job. Isaac, David, and the high priest Jehoiada were said to have died in a similar state (Gen. 35:29; 1 Chron. 29:28; 2 Chron. 24:15). Abraham is said to have died “an old man and full of years,” (Gen. 25:8). But it is also in Job to explain that the typical fare of mankind, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble,” (Job 14:1) and Ecclesiastes explains life under the sun, “For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. “This also is vanity,” (Ecc. 2:23). It is expected in a fallen state that our days would be full of trouble and ultimately meaningless, but Job, and Grandma did not end that way. Their days were full.
A full day is a good day. Many of us, as the sun sets on a day have turned to our spouses and said, “Today was a good day.” Obviously, for someone to receive the Holy Ghost, to be healed, or even a prayer answered makes it a good day. One might even say a full day. Even the birth of a baby, a wedding, an anniversary are good days. It is only right that these events fill up that day because they are full days. After Job’s trials, and the scripture does not tell us how long that actually was, he was compensated with a two-fold blessing and if I am right his remaining days were filled with blessing, answered prayers, and the birth of successive future godly generations, (Job 42:16). But a good day can also be a corrective day.
When the stock market falls they call it a corrective. Stocks are overinflated and need to be corrected back to their actual worth. Sometimes our individual stock is inflated and in need of correction. It was such a day that I sauntered home from school and pronounced loudly that I had made the middle school wrestling team. I thought that I was a peacock and everyone should be proud of me. After some strutting and crowing Grandma, casually stepped into the room and said, “Show me some of those wrestling moves.” She got down on the floor and took the starting position of a Graeco-Roman wrestler and I was going to show her how it was done. In less than five seconds, I found my shoulder blades pinned to the carpet. Grandma got up, dusted her hands, gave me a knowing wink, and walked out of the room. My ego took a much-needed correction that day. It was a good day because I learned something very important: there is always someone stronger, tougher, and quicker than you. Adding to what a full day means includes learning something that will change your life.
When sin and divorce broke up my family one Christmas day, Uncle Tom and Aunt Jan rescued our broken family and moved us to Dalhart, TX. to live with Grandma. Being the oldest of three I was shattered and yet expected to step up and be the “man of the house” at twelve. Grandma, in her wisdom, pulled me aside and said to me, “This situation is not your fault, but it is yours to deal with.” She then helped me and the family to put pieces back together. Grandma knew heartbreak and sorrow; she also knew how to walk through the debris of broken shattered dreams and come out on the other side, if not whole, at least able to mitigate the damage that our fallen world puts on us. Learning that lesson from a patient matriarch made it a good day, a full day.
We all have our own story with Grandma and time will not allow everyone to tell of their days with Grandma. She did not just log the years, count the wrinkles and gather age spots, she filled our lives with laughter, wisdom, and oodles of love that we will never forget. She taught us to self-correct our own pride, how to handle blame, and how to deal with things we did not ask for. Our lives were made full because she ministered and mentored us from the depth of her brokenness, poverty, pain, but also from her inherent wisdom and her full days became treasures to everyone that knew her.
Thank you, Grandma! Gladys Louise Clark died, an elderly lady, and full of days.
~R. Todd Nance
