Today I officiated a funeral for a much loved mum, nana, and friend. It was an emotional time for all to hear touching tributes that conveyed the depth of love and gratitude coupled with mourning great personal loss. Saying goodbye to a loved one is always hard, and it is a great blessing when grief can be tempered with the knowledge of a future reunion in heaven through faith in Jesus Christ.
During the service attendees were invited to place a flower on the casket adorned with a lovely bouquet, Scottish tartan, and smiling portrait to the sound of bagpipes. All the flowers provided were ultimately laid on the closed casket soberly and with tears. It occurred to me after the service how the person we honoured and remembered was no longer with us, though the deceased body remains. The real person created in the image of God, the soul of the departed, had already gone to God. What remained in that casket could be compared to a seed, a husk that bears no resemblance to the plant that springs from it. A living plant, flower, or tree looks nothing like the seed.
Paul employed this example speaking of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:35-44: "But someone will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain--perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." Our physical bodies will one day die and decay, but Jesus is the Resurrection and Life who gives eternal to all who trust in Him.
The glory of the terrestrial body bears no resemblance to the glory yet to be revealed. The death of the body is the gate through which Christians pass into eternal life in the presence of God forever free from pains, sorrow, sickness, suffering, and regret. The natural processes of the body like the conversion of oxygen into carbon dioxide or the pumping of blood through veins and arteries is unseen but it is happens in living people continuously. God has put eternity in our hearts and explained in the Bible not only how to live in this life but how to have assurance of eternal life in heaven instead of perishing in hell. In rising from the dead glorified Jesus gave certainty to the resurrection, forgiveness, and eternal life available through faith in Him.
Praise the LORD for the living hope we have through Jesus Christ. Farmers do not weep over the seed they sow because the planted seed is the source of hope for plenty. It is fitting we weep over the passing of our loved ones into eternity, but we can rejoice knowing the planting of the seed of our bodies in death instantly triggers a glorious, everlasting future in the presence of God--the almighty God and Saviour we can know and rejoice in today. What consolation and comfort God gives by His grace.
During the service attendees were invited to place a flower on the casket adorned with a lovely bouquet, Scottish tartan, and smiling portrait to the sound of bagpipes. All the flowers provided were ultimately laid on the closed casket soberly and with tears. It occurred to me after the service how the person we honoured and remembered was no longer with us, though the deceased body remains. The real person created in the image of God, the soul of the departed, had already gone to God. What remained in that casket could be compared to a seed, a husk that bears no resemblance to the plant that springs from it. A living plant, flower, or tree looks nothing like the seed.
Paul employed this example speaking of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:35-44: "But someone will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain--perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." Our physical bodies will one day die and decay, but Jesus is the Resurrection and Life who gives eternal to all who trust in Him.
The glory of the terrestrial body bears no resemblance to the glory yet to be revealed. The death of the body is the gate through which Christians pass into eternal life in the presence of God forever free from pains, sorrow, sickness, suffering, and regret. The natural processes of the body like the conversion of oxygen into carbon dioxide or the pumping of blood through veins and arteries is unseen but it is happens in living people continuously. God has put eternity in our hearts and explained in the Bible not only how to live in this life but how to have assurance of eternal life in heaven instead of perishing in hell. In rising from the dead glorified Jesus gave certainty to the resurrection, forgiveness, and eternal life available through faith in Him.
Praise the LORD for the living hope we have through Jesus Christ. Farmers do not weep over the seed they sow because the planted seed is the source of hope for plenty. It is fitting we weep over the passing of our loved ones into eternity, but we can rejoice knowing the planting of the seed of our bodies in death instantly triggers a glorious, everlasting future in the presence of God--the almighty God and Saviour we can know and rejoice in today. What consolation and comfort God gives by His grace.
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