Anchored in God (Amanda Jane Roberts Gross 1930-2021)
My mamaw, Amanda Gross
On February 19th, 2021 between the hours of 12am and 1am, my maternal grandmother (“Mamaw”) went to be with the Lord. Below is her obituary. Below that are words I would have liked to have shared at her funeral, but due to Covid precautions, I will have to let it suffice they rest here on this website. For the sake of the words shared, I am pretending that I’m there with family and by her casket…
Amanda Jane Roberts Gross was born on July 30, 1930 in Leslie County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of the late Corbin Roberts and Mavie Morgan Roberts. She was united in marriage to William Henry Gross who survives. She is survived by five children, Anita Morgan; Naomi Snyder both of London; Charlotte Collins, Reba Stapleton both of Kingsport, Tennessee; and Kevin Gross of Wilmington, Ohio; four siblings, Loucille Baker of Ohio; Virgil Roberts of Dayton, Ohio; Bonnie Lewis and Victor Roberts both of Stinnett, Kentucky; 10 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, 4 great great grandchildren plus a host of other family and friends to mourn her passing. In addition to her parents she is also preceded in death by a daughter, Audrey Collette; five siblings, Charles, Logan, David, Junior Ray and Leon Roberts.
Amanda was a homemaker and a member of the Pentecostal Church.
Amanda Jane Roberts departed this life on Friday, February 19, 2021 being 90 years, 6 months and 20 days of age.
Rest in the arms of Jesus, Mamaw
The campus ministry I’ve been involved with as a missionary to college students the past eight years, Chi Alpha (pronounced “kai al-fuh”) Campus Ministries, gets its name from the greek words, christou apostoloi, (or “Christ’s Ambassadors”) found in 2 Corinthians 5:20: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
When I think of Mamaw and the life she lived for me these past 34 1/2 years, I think that she was an ambassador for Christ before I ever even knew how to read a Bible, much less heard about Chi Alpha. You could tell that she had spent time with Jesus and had made a decision at some point in her life to really be all in with the Lord. It influenced her character, her attitude, and her actions. The truth of Mamaw’s life is that she didn’t have to love me (or anyone else in the room here today), but rather she chose to operate out of the love that Jesus himself had given her all those years ago when she gave her “yes” to him.
“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
I think we can all agree today that we knew Mamaw was a disciple of the Lord by how much love she showed each and everyone of us, whether it be a card in the mail for a birthday or whether it be her infamous “pats” on the back when you hugged her. (They were anything but pats!) Her love went beyond those gestures to the points of which she would pray over each of us, especially when she knew we could use it. Like Jesus, she loved unconditionally.
I believe her life in Christ was so rich and strong by at least three values though there are likely more. In Chi Alpha, we call these values “anchors” because no matter what kind of situation you face in life if you hold onto these three, you can weather any storm with Christ and make it through to the other side.
A real devotional life
Mamaw kept herself anchored in God by first delighting in the love of God by reading the Bible and spending time in prayer. In John 15, Jesus says,
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (bold emphasis mine)
If Mamaw understood anything about the Lord, it was that there was not much to show of what it was like to live a godly life if she wasn’t spending time with the One whom she had professed as her Lord and Savior! She had chosen to remain in Christ.
Perhaps greater than her time in the Bible and prayer, she always enjoyed a hymn. Her appreciation of music that honored the Lord has not been lost on members of the family who have found themselves talented in this area. Anytime we’d gather for Thanksgiving and especially at Christmas, she’d always say, “Now, sing me a pretty song.” and we all knew that usually meant a hymn or something that helped her direct heartfelt praise to God: praise of Him as Creator and Lord, but also praise that He had gifted her with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren.
2. A real community
Mamaw continued staying anchored in God by being involved in community primarily through her church. “Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together…” (Hebrews 10:25) seemed to be a verse that she practiced anytime the church doors were open.
There were a couple of times I got to go and speak at her church. When we arrived, everyone was in the fellowship hall either eating a cake someone had just baked and brought over to share or drinking coffee (or sometimes both). Both Mamaw and Granddaddy found seats to join in and caught up in conversation with this group of folks they had chosen to worship with.
When it was time for the service to start, everyone would file into the sanctuary and the service would begin. There would be a time of singing, and naturally, Mamaw would find her way to the front to go and sing with the others who would lead the church in worship. When it was time for prayer ministry, those who sat around Mamaw who had asked for prayer would find that Mamaw was already up out of her seat and coming over to lay her hands on them and believe with them in prayer that the Lord could meet their needs.
Community extended beyond the church walls. In healthier days, Mamaw and Granddaddy would go and visit those they’d had a history of ministry with or they would gladly receive guests into their home, offering hospitality and charity.
On multiple occasions, I would get to stop by their house and pay a visit. When me and my family were there, the TV was turned off and we sat in the living room and Mamaw would ask a bunch of questions about how I was doing and would give the fullest attention to my answers. In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, it is hard to find that kind of attention anymore.
3. A real responsibility
Mamaw realized that her faith, precious as it was to her, was not for herself only, but for those who needed to know the Lord and live a life worthy of that knowledge. While she may have offered the invitation into such a relationship with God to friends and neighbors, I believe she cared more about the spiritual status of her own family. I have no idea who she kept fervently praying for but I know that she saw us as her “mission field”, willing to wrestle in prayer and have conversations as needed but doing it in a gentle, kind way. No doubt, her faith was strongly in God, but she knew that was a decision that every one of us would have to make at some point in our lives and no forceful coercion would bring us there.
Seeing her own father and mother live the lives of pastors, she grew up under teaching that there was no time like the present to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. She knew that the Apostle Paul’s words were as true today as they were back then in the pews of her father’s church…
“As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation”
I don’t know where our faith is at today. Seeing this mighty woman of God taken from us can do one of two things: it can either quicken our faith to know God on such a level that our faith remains standing when the world is on fire and everything around us is burning, or it can leave us hopeless and feeling like there is no bedrock for us to stand. Might I encourage all of us today that it’s okay to be in a little of both? It’s okay to not have the answers. It’s okay to feel disoriented after someone so loving and caring has been taken away. It’s okay to be like Job and sit in ashes and be clothed in sackcloth. Do you know there are plenty of Psalms of lament in the Bible? In fact, lament might be the leading topic of the book of Psalms. In other words, there is space for our grief and our sorrows and our asking of the hard questions. I believe the only thing that would be asked of us in this moment if Mamaw were present would be to not give up on Jesus, not yet at least. We hang on for today, and if we wake up and see tomorrow, we hang onto Jesus through just tomorrow. And if we are blessed with another day of life, we do it again, repeating this as we are strengthened to do so. We hang onto Jesus in these moments and guess what? He’s reaching his hand out and asking us to hang on, too.
Isaiah 40:31 says, “but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (bold emphasis mine)
The word for “renew” here in this passage implies an exchange. In other words, it could read like this, “but those who wait for the Lord shall exchange their strength.” Today, God has graciously exchanged His strength with Amanda Jane Roberts Gross. He has taken her sickness, her ailments, her hurts, her worries, her sorrows, and her griefs, and He has exchanged in place of those joy everlasting, healing, peace, comfort, love, and the eternity of being a citizen in the Kingdom of God.
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
May we all find the comfort of the Lord as we look to help each other along. May we all shed the tears we need to shed, embracing our emotions and not running from them. May we find the peace of the Lord in this time and may we know this is not really a “goodbye” but more of a “see you in a little while.”
I love you.
Seth
