We are gathered here today to remember and celebrate Garry Hope, or Hope as many people called him. Garry was my father in law for the last 22 years, and he was a father, a grandfather, a husband, a neighbour, and a friend, to so many others for far longer than that in many cases. No matter how you knew him, what your relationship with him might have been, you no doubt knew his smile, his laugh, and his enthusiasm.

I mentioned how people called him Hope, certainly lots of people called him that. It’s not just because it was his last name and it’s easy to say, but the word hope, and the idea of hope, was an apt choice for him. It’s interesting how a last name, a fairly common name at that, and certainly a common word, can become a central part of one’s identity.

What does the word hope mean? A basic dictionary definition is “a feeling of expectation and/or desire for a certain thing to happen.” I think we can all relate to that.

Was Garry someone who lived with hope, with a hopeful mindset? I think that he was, at least some of the time. After all, you don’t move your family from Ontario to Nova Scotia and start your own business if you don’t have expectations that it will work out. And hope says that even when things don’t go according to plan, you don’t give up and throw in the towel.

There’s more to the word hope than that, though. Hope goes right along with love and with faith, after all, you if turn in the Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 13, you find them together there, for example. Certainly Garry was someone who loved, and was loved, as evidenced by the number of well wishers here today. And as for faith, he was someone who in his younger years attended church regularly and even sang in the choir.

And that brings us to hope, spiritual hope. In ourselves, we have no hope, because we are all sinners, we all fall far short of God’s standard. Even the best of us is not good enough to deserve salvation, not even on our best day. But we don’t have to be. I have hope, I have a promise of resurrection and heaven through the Lord Jesus Christ, based on His redemptive work on the cross of Calvary so long ago. Christ said that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.

This is not some vague hint of a better tomorrow, some slim chance of a next life, but a true and solid hope.  And so as we bid farewell to Garry Hope, we need not be without hope ourselves.