Life & Death... & Eternity

A sermon at my church, The Crossing, truly hit home. Our preacher, Dave Cover, had recently buried his mom. As he was laying her urn in the ground these thoughts occurred to him:

How can this be all there is left of her life?

How can all of her memories, conversations, laughter, love, acts of kindness and regret be reduced to this small urn that will only lie in the ground?

He countered that people will say that she will live on his memory.

But soon enough, his life, his memory, will be reduced to only a box. 

That’s it.

We live. We laugh and love while we are here and then we are put into the ground. The life that we spent so much time trying to give meaning to is put lifelessly into a box.  Our memories live on for a short time until they die with someone else. 

How incredibly sad that reality is when you do not know the promise of Christ. The promise of everlasting life achieved by believing and trusting in the fact the God that made you, loves you and died so that your life would not simply be reduced to a box.

Nothing makes the reality of this hope shine brighter than being surrounded by the urgency of death.

A tragedy in my hometown took the life an amazing and beloved girl.  One I was lucky enough to call a friend, as many did. Leaving her ceremony, Leah and I reflected on the impervious darkness that would be present with no promise of God.

To live without knowing God’s promise of eternity, to live under the impression that the end is just the end, to believe that there was no loving God calling his Catalina home: what an awful, empty world to live in.

During this difficult time, preparing my heart to say good-bye to my Grandma and saying good-bye to a friend so soon, I find such hope in knowing that this is not the end.  

Our lives are only mists and we will truly live in eternity with the Lord.