Funerals and Baby Showers

Celebration of life.....one going out and one coming in......sorrow and joy mixed. That combination can bring us to our knees with questions in our minds and wonder in our hearts. The complexity of it can be overwhelming, yet the simplicity of its unwavering occurrence leaves us often taking it all for granted. There is birth and there is death. In a physical sense, it seems cut and dried. But on a deeper emotional  and spiritual level, the only cutting and drying that occurs is the cutting of heart and the drying of tears.

As our family eagerly prepares for the entry of a new baby girl, we mourn the unexpected losses of  two family members.  It's ironic that we call a pregnant woman, one who is "Expecting" and then use the same term as we describe a sudden death, as one that was "Unexpected". Maybe it should be the other way around? After all, we "Expect" that all people will die, but never are quite sure when one would be blessed with new life...right? But what if, instead of separating it all out, it could become one? What if we had no expectations except that new life passes into New Life? It's all more connected than we may think. This life is temporary, yet we have such a hard time letting go. But New Life is eternal......instead of letting go, we can embrace it and hang on to the fact that death as we know it, is really only the beginning of eternal New Life for a believer.

As we enter in to Holy Week, we ponder the most heart wrenching death of all.....the Crucifixion of Jesus; and we celebrate the most wondrous truth of all....the Resurrection of Jesus. His life here on Earth as one of us was temporary, but had an earth shattering purpose. What He did on the Cross made it possible to connect that gap between temporary and eternal. His resurrection is proof of His "realness" .....proof that He indeed is our Lord and Savior.......and proof that we too can be resurrected into New Life as we accept this to be true and live a life following AFTER Him, until we are called to eternal life WITH Him.  As we die to our self focused ways, and take up His Cross.....where His forgiveness bled down.....we become one with eternal life.....New Life. Oh, the Bliss of it!

We celebrate life, both at Baby Showers AND Funerals, because life has earth shattering purpose. We welcome fresh new babies with Hope, and we say good-bye to those who have left us........with Hope.

And in between, we live with earth shattering purpose.....shattering all expectations that bind us to earthly limitations and hopelessness. We live while embracing the heavenly realm of loving God and one another. And we live forwardly, in expectancy of what is to come......when birth is just birth and death is no more.

"Now Faith is the confidence of what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see"

 Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this Faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living." Hebrews 11:1 (The Message)