[Job 19:23-27; Romans 8:31-39; Matthew 6:7-15]Dear Clara, Donna and Robert, Joyce and Daniel, Lynn, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, family and friends of Roy Henkhaus, there are ultimately only two paths in life. Either you live your life praying: “Thy will be done” and so know the peace of God or you live your life praying: “My will be done” and so in constant fretting and anxiety. I do not need to tell you which way Roy lived, do I? His rather unshakable calm witnesses all by itself to the path he pursued.
His godly parents set him upon that path on the day when he was baptized at the ripe age of 12 days old. His parents brought him to old St. Paul’s and the water was poured over him in der namen des Vaters und des Sohns und des Heiligen Geistes. Amen! That day he was born anew into God’s family, his sins forgiven for his whole life long, the promise of eternal life given to him, and he was put on the path of those who learn to deny their own wills and to pray that God’s good and gracious will be done in their lives, in the lives of their family and friends, and of this world.
He walked that path through many joys and many sorrows. Of the joys, certainly of the brightest for him was that amazing Clara Lienemann agreed to go with him on that first date - and ever after he was happy to show his lucky $2 bill and share the story. It was always in his wallet - one of the most romantic gestures I could imagine. He rejoiced that in praying for God’s will to be done, God provided him with a wife and companion to walk the way and share with him all the ups and down. And well did the vacancy pastor here at St. Paul at the time of your marriage, Clara, remind you both of the Our Father and teach you that this prayer would guide your marriage in the ways of the Lord, so that together you learned to deny your own wills and to pray for God’s good and gracious will to be done - even when you pray that prayer with tears.
And tears there were a plenty. The tragic and sad loss of brother Allen and later of Harry and Earl; the unspeakable sadness of Terry’s untimely death; the horrific thanksgiving morning when news came of Jennifer’s accident. The sorrows mount in this life, and you either face them with praying “Thy will be done” and so finally come to peace, or you lose all peace as you rage that your will wasn’t done, that your plans were shattered, your hopes and dreams destroyed. Roy walked the way of peace. It wasn’t about his plans or dreams; it was about the Lord’s will and purposes.
But it wasn’t all sorrow - the Lord’s ways never are. There was also joy unspeakable. For Roy, YOU were his unspeakable joy - his wife, his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren -each of you he counted an undeserved and wondrous blessing from God. And so the peace that you could see on his face - even when his face had streams of tears running down it. In the end, his tears were for you, for he hated to leave you, but he knew that it wasn’t a forever farewell. It was only “till we see each other again.”
You see, he knew what old Job confessed. That we have a Redeemer. That in the end He WILL stand again upon this earth. That though our flesh is destroyed, yet in that flesh we shall see God whom our very eyes shall behold and not another. It’s a day when all that has been wrong is set right. To believe and hope for that day and its arrival is live in peace - and when a child of God prays: “Thy will be done” as in the Lord’s Prayer he is praying to see that day of Resurrection.
But there is another factor in walking that way, and that is remembering that there is nothing, absolutely nothing you will ever face in this world that can deprive you of the love God has shown you in Jesus Christ. No one, I don’t believe, can come to pray “thy will be done” until they’ve realized that no matter how painful the crosses the Lord may see fit to send us, they all come from One who loves us more deeply than words can ever begin to tell, a God who is determined that the life we’ve tasted in His Son is a life we shall never lose, a God whose ultimate will for us is that we share His own eternal blessedness.
It was in the confidence of that love that Roy could and did pray the Our Father and it is in the confidence of that love that he was granted the fullness of what he prayed for his whole life from that moment when the pastor laid hands on him and prayed Vater unser der du bist im Hmmel until that moment when his eyes were closed to this age and he saw God’s kingdom - all the saints and the angels, his brothers, his son, his granddaughter, his parents - all the saints gathered around the throne, and all praising the holy name and asking that God’s good, gracious and perfect will continue to be done on earth as they taste it even now in heaven. The moment when he was at last delivered finally from all the evils of this age, and now he waits with them the even greater glory of resurrection morning.
But for you who still are on pilgrimage, from whose eyes the tears have not yet been wiped away, how better can you honor and remember your Roy than by becoming one with him in his praying the Our Father, especially asking that God’s will be done in your life, not your own will, not your own plans, not your own ways, but His will and His will alone, the will of Him who has loved you in His Son with an everlasting love and promised you through His Son’s death on your behalf a share in that life which death will never be able to take from you? Amen.
Roy H. Henkhaus, age 85, of Hamel, died at 9:25 p.m., on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, at Hitz Memorial Home in Alhambra. He was born on May 27, 1924, in Alhambra, the son of the late Edward E. and Sophie A. Henke Henkhaus. He married Clara L. Lienemann on May 2, 1948, at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel. She survives.
Along with his wife, he is survived by two daughters: Donna K. and husband Robert Zerrusen of Vandalia and Joyce A. and husband Daniel Newby of Glen Carbon; daughter-in-law: Lynn Henkhaus of Edwardsville; grandchildren: Eric and wife Tonya Rodgers, Todd and wife Dena Willeford, Daisy and husband Greg Zykan, Angela Henkhaus, Megan Newby and Brooks Newby; great grandchildren: Madalyn Rodgers, Parker Rodgers, Gage Zykan, Luke Zykan and Hayden Willeford; a brother: Ted and wife Velma Henkhaus of Alhambra; sister: Ruth Kelley of Alhambra; and sisters-in-law: Irma Henkhaus of Hamel and Verna Henkhaus of Staunton.
Along with his parents, he is preceded in death by a son: Terry Lee Henkhaus, who preceded on Aug. 24, 1985; brothers: Earl Henkhaus, Harry Henkhaus, who preceded April, 1987, and Allen Henkhaus, who preceded in 1948; brother-in-law: Samuel Kelley; and grandchild: Jennifer Willeford, who preceded on Nov., 1993.
Roy was born in Alhambra Township on the family farm. He attended West School, St. Paul Lutheran School and Suhre School. He worked as a farm hand and entered the U.S. Army from 1946-1947. After his service he worked at US Radiator in Edwardsville and then drove a truck in St. Louis for American Car and Foundry. He became a full-time farmer and retired in 1992, selling the farm and equipment and moving into Hamel. His memberships include St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, former member of the Madison County Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau Senior Club.
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