While getting dressed this Monday morning, I couldn't help but feel a little excited about today. I was going to a funeral. Yes, I know what you're thinking, but this was going to be no ordinary memorial service for me. My dad's aunt, Lenora Gray, went to be with her Savior, and we were going to be celebrating her past life on earth and her present life in heaven. I only had the pleasure of visiting with this godly woman a few times growing up, but she always impressed me as a gracious, God-fearing lady.
As I anticipated the service, the memory of her husband's funeral 13 years ago was still fresh in my mind. Uncle Herman's service was one of the most meaningful funerals I had ever attended. It was a celebration. After a fight with cancer, my godly uncle received the ultimate healing, and to a bystander his service would have appeared more like a worship service than a memorial. At 16 years of age, it impacted me.
And today, I was sure I would experience another celebration, of a Christ-follower passing from this life to the life Christ bought for her and for us all.
In the busyness of life, we need to be reminded that this life will end. We need to be challenged to tarry on for works that will endure for eternity. We need to be prodded to think about what legacy we will leave. Perhaps we should even reflect on what we anticipate our own funeral being like.
I, for one, want my funeral to be like Uncle Herman's and Aunt Lenora's. Where you can't tell the difference between it and a worship service. Where the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached. Where God is glorified. Where my family, though they will miss me, will praise Jesus that we have hope of spending eternity together in the presence of the One who created us all.
"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15)
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