Saying Goodbye to Dana

When was the last time you went to a funeral that ended with wild applause? I don’t think the honoree, Rev. Dana Ferguson, would have had it any other way.

Just a few moments before the standing-room-only crowd (about 1,200 or 1,500) began clapping, there probably wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

It’s just so unnatural to watch two beautiful young boys follow behind their mother’s casket. Heartbreaking.

Except for a few moments of laughter celebrating her life, it was a pretty somber service. Dana had handpicked just about every detail of her funeral, the Psalms, readers, preachers, and music, down to a special request for 4th Church’s phenomenal Morning Choir and Tower Brass.

Rev. John Buchanan delivered a powerful sermon, half eulogy, half message. A bagpiper, playing Amazing Grace, led the funeral procession out of the church.

We were asked to hold back for the postlude: a raucous New Orleans brassy arrangement of “Just a Closer Walk With Me.”

Hilarious. A fitting tribute to Dana Ferguson Myers.

Dr. Buchanan noted that Dana’s last sermon was on April 20, about the stoning of Stephen.

I’ll leave you with this excerpt:

[L]ife is a gift. It is a gift that comes to us free and clear. At the beginning of it we are given no guarantees or warranties or agreements. Unfair is when we’ve been assured one thing will happen and another does. But that isn’t the case here. There is a promise that comes with life in Christ and it is this: “I will be with you always.” That’s it. That’s the promise. And it’s the here and now for which we continually strive. But it doesn’t end there. It goes on eternally. Jesus says to the disciples, “When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.” When all is done here on earth, all isn’t done for us with Christ. In fact, all is made complete.