Funerals are never happy occasions of course but some can prove very uplifting as I realised the other day when I gathered with friends from all over South Wales to say ‘au revoir’ to a wonderful friend and fellow pastor. I use the phrase ‘au revoir’ deliberately because like everyone else who gathered in his former church in Cardiff I firmly believe we will meet again as we prepare to spend eternity together.

David was an exceptional man. The huge number of people who packed into the church was proof of that. We first met more than 30 years ago when he came to preach in the church I was pastoring in Pembroke, and before long it seemed as if he was part of the furniture. He was certainly a great preacher and communicator but just as importantly he had a warm engaging personality. It was always a joy to spend time with him. As someone said to me ‘He always made me feel valued and important. I felt a better person whenever I was in his presence’. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that could be said of every one of us?

I was always struck by David’s desire to celebrate other peoples’ achievements and blessings. Unlike so many of us he was able to ‘rejoice with those who rejoice’. He clearly didn’t feel threatened by or jealous of them. He was a great encourager too, so much so that one of my friends said ‘He simply shone with the love of Jesus’. Is it any wonder then that in my tribute to him I quoted these familiar words from Paul’s letter to his friends in Philippi: ‘Every time I think of you I give thanks to God. Whenever I pray I make my requests for all of you with joy for you have been my partners in spreading the good news about Christ from the time you first heard about it until now’

David did his utmost to spread the Christian gospel too. In fact, we were told a story of how a man turned up in a church where he was preaching and told him that he had become a Christian because he had read some words scratched on a stone wall in the hills near Merthyr. They simply said, ‘Prepare to meet your God’. Little did he realise at the time that the man he was talking to had scratched it there some thirty years earlier. If nothing else David was evangelist, and he realised you don’t have to occupy a pulpit to deserve that title.

David was not perfect of course; he knew that only too well but he reminded me of another David, the one who wrote Psalm 23. It was said of him that he was a man after God’s own heart. He knew he had been forgiven and he was convinced that the day will dawn when God’s children will be resurrected and given glorious new bodies. And so, while we grieved, we also rejoiced in the promise that a man who displayed so much of God’s love and grace in life will not only shine with the love of Jesus he will be a carbon copy of Him. As you might guess, that’s the reason I found his funeral service so uplifting.