Esther Schraw – First Speaker at Memorial Service for Margaret Knaggs – Columbia, MO – February 5, 2011

Hymn 75, “I’ve a Friend” (Congregational singing)

Robert Eberhardt read obituary and prayed.

When I first came to MO, I met Margaret for the first time. She was a monument of strength to me—physically and spiritually. In recent years we have seen her physical strength taken away, but her spiritual strength never taken but increased. She was a pillar amongst us. We understand a pillar is a support to the whole building. Margaret was a strength to our staff, our friends in every way. We loved her for that. She understood the Kingdom isn’t about her, she didn’t say it with words, but she concentrated on the whole of the Kingdom.

Isaiah 38:12 (Hezekiah speaking), “Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent.” Margaret’s tent has been taken away. In Colorado, in the mountains, we saw shepherd’s tents in use while they were living with their flocks. One day we decided to mark the spot on the highway where they were seen, and later go and see it. We walked up where it had been, it had been moved, but there were markings on the earth — markings that the shepherd had been there with his sheep. Margaret’s tent has been taken, but there are beautiful markings on the earth. We will still love her influence.

Job 14:14, “If a man die, shall he live again?” She will still live in our hearts. A shepherd is known, by how close the sheep nestle to his tent when they rest at night. We loved to nestle close to her. She would always give counsel and wisdom with such love. Her influence lives amongst us. One Saturday night meeting she spoke in, she referred to Ruth’s choice. “It took her beyond death, into the eternal day.” We want to be inspired in our place to be as faithful as she was.