How does one define the essence of a person? Certainly more than the box of ashes in a plastic bag tucked inside the box given to you by the funeral director. More than the photos and memorabilia carefully placed on a table in the reception hall after the memorial service or the nice words said in memory of the departed.
All these put together were just fragments of Liz Congdon’s life celebrated Monday at the church she pastored for many years. We sang her favorite hymns; we listened to the comments of family and friends, but still the essence of her life was even more. It could be found in the faces of the many refugees she had helped, the poor she clothed and fed and helped to house.
Looking at the ashes, to be scattered over water, we see our own vulnerabilities and wonder, this is it? But our faith tells us, no, this is not just “it,” for as we carry someone in our hearts and memories, we realize that we are more than the ashes for we are part of the very heart of God. The ashes floated out on the water and then sank to become part of the very earth created by God.
Prayer for the Day
In the midst of our own fears and vulnerabilities,
We come to you, O God, for solace and strength;
In mourning the ones we love, O Lord, we pause,
And consider our own lives and weaknesses.
Be with us, O Holy One, as we seek your grace,
The grace that gives us assurance of your love and care.
In the name of the One who if your assurance,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
For death is nothing more than the turning of us over from time to eternity.
William Penn, Quaker, champion of religious freedom (1644-1718)
It is not the end of our physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern should be to live while we are alive – to release ourselves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a façade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, psychologist (1926-2004)
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creations=, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul in his letter to the Romans 8:38-39