Celebrating the Life of
Marie Cooper Zehnder
September 16, 2002
September 19, 2002 10:00am
St. Luke Lutheran Church
Ann Arbor, MI
Welcome Rev. Dan Cloeter
Special Music “Above All” Rev. Mark Zehnder
Congregational singing:
Holy, Holy, Holy
Jesus, Lover of My Soul
We Fall Down
Reading #1 - Psalm 139:13-16 Lori O’Droski
Congregational singing:
You Are My All in All
Reading #2 - Luke 18:15-17 Bryan O’Droski
Special Music
“Hallelujahs” Rev. Mark Zehnder
Reading #3 - I Thessalonians 4:13-14, 17
Jamie Renken
Message Rev. Dan Cloeter
Prayers
Special Presentation Justin Renken
Special word from Mike & Allison
Steve Zehnder
Closing hymn:
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
You are my strength when I am weak,
You are the treasure that I seek,
You are my All in All.
Seeking You as a precious jewel,
Lord, to give up I’d be a fool.
You are my All in All.
Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is Your name.
Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is Your name.
Taking my sin, my cross, my shame, rising again
I bless Your name. You are my All in All.
When I fall down, You pick me up;
When I am dry, You fill my cup.
You are my All in All.
Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is Your name.
Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is Your name.
Worthy is Your name.
Worthy is Your name.
Worthy is Your name.
©1990 Shepherd’s Heart Music
CCLI #198337
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall!
Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him Lord of all.
Let ev’ry kindred, ev’ry tribe On this terrestrial ball
To him all majesty ascribe And crown him Lord of all.
To him all majesty ascribe And crown him Lord of all.
Oh, that with yonder sacred throng We at his feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song And crown him Lord of all.
We’ll join the everlasting song And crown him Lord of all.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
Which wert and art and evermore shalt be.
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
Though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see,
Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
Perfect in pow’r, in love and purity.
Repeat first verse
Jesus, Lover of My Soul
It’s all about You, Jesus, Jesus, Lover of my soul.
And all this is for You, All consuming fire is in Your gaze.
For Your glory and Your fame. Jesus, I want You to know.,
It’s not about me. I will follow You all my days.
As if You should do things my way. For no one else in history is like You.
You alone are God, And history itself belongs to You.
And I surrender to your ways. Alpha and Omega, You have loved me.
And I will share eternity with You.
©1995 Kingsways’ Thank you Music
CCLI #198337
We Fall Down
We fall down And we cry, “Holy, holy, holy:,
We lay our crowns And we cry, “Holy, holy, holy”,
At the feet of Jesus. And we cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.”
The greatness of
Mercy and love
At the feet
Of Jesus. ©CCLI #198337
We are humbled and honored that you have chosen to celebrate with us today. We want to take this opportunity to share with you what God has done through this experience.
We learned very early in our pregnancy of Marie’s illness and her serious condition. Over the past 27 weeks, we have experienced a number of different emotions. Sadness, fear, grief, anxiety, depression. But we also made a very conscious effort to enjoy Marie’s life while she was with us physically. We named her right away so we could bond with her, talk about her and pray for her by name. Our family enjoyed watching her grow inside Allison’s body. We talked to her, sang to her, felt her kicks and movements; Silas and Lizzie kissed her. We embraced this time to include her in our family as much as possible. In the midst of this, we were able to experience the joy of her life. God has blessed us during this time by giving us peace, patience and grace. We have grown much more appreciative of Jesus’ death throughout our suffering. We have felt Him carry us through these days.
We were blessed with three very special hours with Marie. During that time, our family celebrated with tears of joy as we witnessed her baptism. As we observed her struggling, Mike and Allison chose to spend her last 45 minutes together alone, and she died peacefully while we encouraged her to join Jesus. These hours were what we’d hoped for, and far better than we could have expected.
Although God didn’t grant Marie the miracle of physical health, He granted her the miracle of eternal life. And He granted us the miracle of carrying us through a very traumatic and stressful journey.
This experience has become much more than Marie’s short life. We have learned about surrendering our lives to God. We have learned about friendship, love and support. We have learned to cherish the very small details of our lives. And we’ve learned how truly precious and fragile life is. We hope and pray that in some small way that Marie has touched you too.
Family Members:
Grandparents: Mr. & Mrs. Paul Cooper and
Rev. & Mrs. Ronald Zehnder
Great-Grandmas: Helen Cooper and
Millie Jordon
Sponsors: Bryan & Lori O’Droski
Aunts and Uncles: Jordon & Lindsay Cooper
Mark & Sharon Zehnder
Steve & Jeni Zehnder
Tim & Ruth Zehnder
Mark & Carole Carlson
Randy & Lisa Maas
Cousins: Eric, Zachary, & Charista Zehnder
Andrew & Hannah Zehnder
John-Mark, Micah, & Malachi Zehnder
Ryan, Tim, Kristin & Lauren Carlson
Michael, Matthew, Jeremy & Jacob Maas
A word of thanks from the Zehnder family
We want to thank the numerous people who have helped us in so many ways. The outpouring of love shown to us has been overwhelming. Thank you for the practical and spiritual support. We have been forever touched by the mercy and love shown to us. Our thanks goes to each of you for coming today to honor our daughter’s very special life.
~Mike, Allison, Silas and Elizabeth Zehnder
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed
you as my spokesman to the world.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (New Living Translation)
…Private burial and luncheon will follow service...
First Anniversary
in Heaven
Story