"I could only imagine what it was like for my father to step into Heaven and there was the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, 'well done, good and faithful servant.' Can you just imagine?”
EULOGY
Rev. Franklin Graham, spoke those words as the world said goodbye to evangelist Rev. Billy Graham.
More than 2,000 guests attended the funeral held at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte Friday including President Trump.
Graham said, “I think the most compelling vision I have engrained in my memory is of my father the evangelist, the preacher, standing behind this pulpit, right here.”
It’s the same pulpit Rev. Billy Graham spoke from during many of his crusades in the 1990s.
“He’s often said that someday you’ll read that Billy Graham is dead. He said, “Don’t you believe one word of it.” He said, I’ll be more alive than I am now. I will have just changed addresses that’s all.”
Graham also said while delivering the funeral message, “If he could speak to you today he would ask, “Will you be making this journey to heaven someday?”’
Graham said that he and his siblings all came to know God through their evangelist father's eyes.
"I remember we would take walks together along mountain trails above his log home in Montreat," Graham said. "But the Billy Graham that the world saw on television, the Billy Graham that the world saw in big stadiums, was the same Billy Graham we saw at home.
After a life of traveling the world to spread the gospel, he said the Billy Graham he knew finally made the trip he's waited on for a lifetime.
He said, Graham preached about heaven, wrote a book about heaven and is now "in heaven," Franklin Graham, said. "His journey is complete."
FAMILY TRIBUTES
Other family members paid tribute to Graham including his sister, Jean Ford, as well as his children — Virginia "Gigi" Graham, Anne Graham Lotz, Ruth Graham, and Ned Graham.
Anne Graham Lotz promised she would dedicate her life to spreading the gospel as he did, saying she believed her father's death was "a shot across the bow from Heaven."
Ruth Graham told a story of forgiveness from her father after she felt she made a huge mistake early in her life. She said, after she made the trip home, as she rounded the last bend, there stood none other than Rev. Billy Graham, awaiting the arrival of his daughter.
"He wrapped his arms around me and he said, 'welcome home.' There was no shame. No blame, no condemnation; just unconditional love. And my father was not God, but he showed me what God was like that day."
The funeral took place under a massive, 28,000 square-foot tent to signify Rev. Graham’s early beginnings. He spent a decade planning his own funeral.
During his life, Billy Graham's ministry and crusades are reported to have impacted over 215 million people in nearly 200 countries.
More than 100 international delegates from 50 countries were also in attendance for the service.
Other esteemed guests at Rev. Graham's funeral included previous Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, Kathie Lee Gifford, Joel Osteen, and Beth Moore of Living Proof Ministries. Political figures were also in attendance, with former N.C. governor Pat McCrory and Sarah Palin attending the service.
Grammy-winning Christian recording artist Michael W. Smith, a personal favorite of Rev. Graham's, performed "Above All.” Famed southern gospel group the Gaither Vocal Band sang the traditional Christian hymn "Because He Lives," one of Rev. Graham's favorite hymns. Bill and Gloria Gaither were longtime friends with Graham and performed at many of his crusades over the years.
Rev. Graham’s casket and family were escorted out of the tent to the tune of "Amazing Grace" being played by Pipe Major William Boetticher. Ruth Graham's funeral in 2007 also included a bagpipe recessional.
BURIAL
"You know, I've lost a very dear friend and a man that I had the privilege of spending many years in a very private and personal way with," said Dr. Don Wilton, the personal pastor of Rev. Billy Graham.
Dr. Donald Wilton and Dr. David Bruce spoke at the interment service.
Wilton said, “He didn’t just talk about the love of God but lived it in the very fabric of his being.”
He also read aloud a scripture he said Graham had all over his house.
Galatians 6:14 reads, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Family members then placed flowers over his casket.
TOMBSTONE
Rev. Graham’s tombstone will read “Preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ” along with a single Bible verse. That verse, John 14:6, reads “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
CASKET
Graham was buried in a casket handmade by Louisiana inmates. The caskets are made of pine, plywood and lined with a mattress pad. A wooden cross is nailed to the top of the casket.
RESTING PLACE
Billy Graham was buried at the Billy Graham Library next to his wife Ruth, who died in 2007.
NATIONAL TRIBUTES
The funeral serves as the culmination of more than a week of tributes that included crowds lining the road for a procession from his home in the mountains to Charlotte, where Graham grew up.
Approximately 13,000 people including former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton filed past his casket during a public viewing in Charlotte this week.
And on Wednesday, Graham became the first private citizen since civil rights icon Rosa Parks in 2005 to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington.
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