Norma Lee Kite
Funeral Normally Kite • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Aunt Norma Lee and I had a very unique relationship growing up as many of you know.
At a young age, I found out that she was a democrat and I was a republican.
At all our family gatherings, Aunt Norma Lee was right down the road from my grandma so towards the end of the day she would stop in for a visit to see all of us.
The moment she would walk through Grandma’s door I would start in on her. She would laugh and start feeding it back at me.
I loved her laugh and her smile. (It was soft and it was often)
This kept going on so much that I remember one get together that one of the other adults told me that Aunt Norma Lee was going to come visit but grandma has asked that you Jonathan not talk politics with Aunt Norma Lee.
Aunt Norma Lee was special and God blessed all of us with the opportunity to know her.
She was gracious, kind, smart, compassionate, talented, funny and the list goes on.
For this reason I chose Proverbs 31 for one of our passages today. Another fun fact about Proverbs 31 is that it is an acrostic poem with each of the verses beginning with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Norm Lee being the excellent quilter that she was I would like to think of her life in terms of putting a quilt together.
Bear with me just a little because I started researching how to put a quilt together in preparation for this service.
In quilting you have blocks, I like to think of each of these areas of Aunt Normally’s life as a block
I was with my grandma the day Aunt Norma Lee passed and we were talking about her. Grandma has an art piece on the wall from aunt Norma Lee and she said yeah Norma Lee got all the talent and I didn’t get any of it. haha. Anyone who knows my grandma knows that she is very talented as well.
Here you have a sister in her 90’s and Aunt Norma Lee was a 100 and they are still fussing about who is more talented! Does not give me much hope on my kids to stop fussing at each other.
So as I read through Proverbs 31 I want to encourage you to see the traits of Aunt Norma Lee in these verses and each time you recognize one then thank Jesus that he placed her in your life and that we had to opportunity to know her.
WIFE
10 Who can find a capable wife? She is far more precious than jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will not lack anything good.
12 She rewards him with good, not evil, all the days of her life.
She loved her husband JW with all her heart. JW loved her. She shared the story that JW told her you are almost perfect wife!
Of course Aunt Norma Lee responded with what keeps me from being perfect.
He said, “Sometimes you put the toilet paper roll on the wrong direction”
She laughed.
It was fun to visit with her about JW because she spoke of him just like they had first met. She loved and supported him.
This block is that she was a loving wife.
QUILTER
13 She selects wool and flax and works with willing hands.
19 She extends her hands to the spinning staff, and her hands hold the spindle.
22 She makes her own bed coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
24 She makes and sells linen garments; she delivers belts to the merchants.
She was a quilter. Many of us have been blessed by this gift she had. She will be remembered each time we see the quilt she made for us and blessed us with.
The next block is her ability to make quilts
SHE BROUGHT FOOD
14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from far away.
15 She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household and portions for her female servants.
16 She evaluates a field and buys it; she plants a vineyard with her earnings.
I remember that Aunt Norma Lee made dishes for my grandma’s family gatherings that she would not even attend! How special is that. She would support her sister and just bring food for her.
The block of making and providing food
STRENGTH
17 She draws on her strength and reveals that her arms are strong.
18 She sees that her profits are good, and her lamp never goes out at night.
I think about her strength. Her strength for me was her ability to laugh and sometimes come back at me when I would give her a hard time about politics. I was the one who got in trouble by grandma for it but I am not sure I was the one who always started it.
When we would visit her, the lamp would be on and she would be sitting there reading.
She was strong
CARE FOR THE POOR
20 Her hands reach out to the poor, and she extends her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all in her household are doubly clothed.
22 She makes her own bed coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
I will never forget we were at my dad’s shop late one night. JW and Norma Lee pulled in. They took my mom and dad outside and opened the back of the trunk and they had purchased a brand new microwave for our family.
It was not a special day they just wanted to do it for us. We used that microwave a long time. We as kids were not really filled in on what took place on this night because JW and Norma Lee didn’t want anyone to know they had cared for us in this way.
SHE ENSURES HER HOUSEHOLD IS DOUBLY CLOTHED
Laugh
25 Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom and loving instruction is on her tongue.
She smiled and laughed a lot
Mildred gave me this poem that she sent her the year of covid.
(Read Poem)
MOTHER
27 She watches over the activities of her household and is never idle.
28 Her sons rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also praises her:
Bob wanted to ride his bike across town to his grandparents house as a child and Aunt Norma Lee to him you can. So he took off in his new found freedom and felt all grown up.
He later found out that after she told him he could go that she got in the car and followed him there to make sure he got there safely.
MOTHER
29 “Many women are capable, but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.
31 Give her the reward of her labor, and let her works praise her at the city gates.
So think with me for just a minute about her life as a quilt and these blocks
Mother, Laughs, Care for the poor, Strength and honor, wisdom, brings food, quilter and wife.
In Quilting, you create a row and then you sew the rows together and you nest the seams properly then where 4 blocks come together it is the point.
The point is where the 4 blocks come together.
As I reflect on Aunt Normally’s life at the Point of all these blocks was a woman who feared the Lord. If all the blocks represented her life, then the point that brought them all together was Jesus
Aunt Norma Lee was special and here is why
Jesus was the center of her life
Jesus is greater than Aunt Norma Lee
2 He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at Him, no appearance that we should desire Him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn’t value Him.
4 Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.
6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth.
8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment; and who considered His fate? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
9 They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.
10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
11 He will see it out of His anguish, and He will be satisfied with His knowledge. My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will carry their iniquities.
For the last 10 years, Aunt Norma Lee has been telling me that she wanted me to preach her funeral and Its not because of our politics but it’s because she wanted me to share Jesus with you all.
Jesus was the point that pulled all the seams together in Aunt Norma Lee’s life.
Jesus who did not know sin died for her sin.
Jesus did what us that Aunt Norma Lee could not do for us
Jesus blessed us with Aunt Norma Lee in our lives
Do you know him? Is Jesus the Point of your life.
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