Elizabeth Anne Tonjes, 12/19/83-10/31/21

Earlier this afternoon Elizabeth passed into the arms of her Creator. Her whole family was with her as she breathed her last. We sang hymns over her. We wept. We grieve, because that is right to do. It is what our Lord did, even knowing the resurrection He was about to bring.

Join us in our grief. Join us also in the hope that death, while its teeth are sharp, has had its throat torn open by Jesus. If we are in Christ, the grave has no lasting hold on us. Elizabeth’s soul is at rest with her Savior, awaiting its reunion with her body when He returns. We will miss her, but we anticipate that morning after the long night when she will rise and we will rise with her to walk forth in glory incomprehensible and without end.

This is the last picture we have with her, in one of her final semi-lucid moments.

“When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of death and hell’s Destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.”
-William Williams
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
"This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
(Isaiah 25:6-9)