Lindsey Laid to Rest with a Beautiful Song
To those asking, the funeral service is now posted under the Funeral tab on this website, and can also be accessed through this link: Lindsey's Funeral
As a family, and with a few close friends, we laid Lindsey to rest this morning. The air was cold, the sky was blue, and the short service was beautiful. Seeing her lowered into the ground and covered with earth is an image that is now seared in my mind for the rest of my days, I’m sure. It was sad and heavy, and still so surreal. A dear friend pointed out how Lindsey still “gave her boys tractors to watch, even at the end,” as tractors were used to transport earth and then fill her grave. Surely, it was an image my boys will carry with them through life as well. Though I continue to feel a storm of emotions, her committal was met with a moment of peace and stillness within my soul. And, for that I am grateful. I was at rest enough to let her go.
In addition to her brother leading us through a corporate singing of “Great is Thy Faithfulness” on guitar, we were also blessed with a song a friend of ours shared with me after she passed. His name is Jonathan Allston, and he’s a dear friend we’ve gotten to know through our time at church together. He’s served as a pastoral intern, and his family is a part of a small group at church that’s been together since the Fall of 2019, a few months before Lindsey was diagnosed. So, he and his family, along with many others in our neighborhood group as it’s called, have been a huge part of our journey from Lindsey’s diagnosis to the end.
At a few touchpoints along the way, he has written and sent Lindsey poems of encouragement and lament littered with personal references that absolutely moved Lindsey and me. In order to preserve some intimacy between us, I’ll keep those poems in my private possession but I did want to share his most recent poem, brought to life in an enchanting, somber, and heavy song shared with me last Wednesday. Our family and I loved it so much that we tried to find a way to slip it into the funeral service at the last minute, but it was too late for practical reasons I easily agreed with and settled on. But, this morning, our pastor surprised us with the gift of this song at her graveside. Our friend Jonathan, that before last week I didn’t know could sing, much less write music, appeared along with another friend from church to perform the song, “Christ give rest (Lindsey’s song),” as he titled it. He said he wrote it this Fall about Christ giving us rest in death but that it was her song now. This is a fitting poem and prayer for a time such as this. Please give it a listen. And forgive any audio quality issues, as he shared this to encourage me and to express his love for Lindsey, not to put on Spotify. And, hearing it performed today was one of the most fitting and moving musical experiences of my life. I felt so loved and so soothed by the promises of God, so set at ease with the laying to rest of Lindsey.
Song shared with Jonathan’s permission. Please give it a listen. Lyrics below.
Christ give rest to your servant with your saints
Where sorrow and pain are no more
Neither crying, but life everlasting
Where sorrow and pain are no more
I go to my fathers in peace
I go to my mothers in rest
Abram and Sarah, martyrs and priests
I go to my fathers in peace
Refrain
I’m leaving the valley of tears
I go the city of light
A place and a welcome are richly prepared
I’m leaving the valley of tears
Refrain
I know where it is I belong
I’ve tasted the bread and the wine
Angels and saints I’ve joined in their song
I know where it is I belong
Refrain (2x)
We entrust your servant to your care
Where sorrow and pain are no more
(Text and Music - Jonathan Allston)
