Morbid??? Or one of the least morbid things we do?

I used to enjoy making visits to my hometown at Memorial Day.  While there, we would accompany my mother out to the cemeteries fulfilling the obligation of decorating graves.  It seems that many cemeteries discourage or prohibit flowers (not surprising since many now forbid any but flat tombstones).  Not where I come from.  It is a solemn annual duty to remember the dead and to decorate graves.  It may coincide with Memorial Day and the special decoration of the graves of soldiers but it goes well beyond this patriotic duty.  It is love's effort to remember and never forget those whom we love who have died.  So we would go from grave to grave decorating the tombstones of family members but it was not a burden.  It was a privilege.  

Now that my dad's grave is among those to decorate, it is even more profound.  I well recall when it was part of his duty to direct what happened in the small park by the auditorium and the job of loading children into the cars with enough white crosses marked with poppies to mark the graves of the dead who served our country.  Now others are placing the memorials on his grave and he is one of the many who served and whose service is now honored by a moment of remembrance and a small cross.

Some folks abhor cemeteries.  I don't.  My wife is particularly keen on them (part of her interest in our ancestors).  Tombstones tell us the stories of the dead is often hidden ways.  The sayings or Scripture passages carved into stone.  The dates of life and death.  Those who accompany the dead in that plot. The weathering of the stone and its information.  All of this combines to tell us a story not of the dead but of their lives and they are living memorials to a life which, in earthly terms, had a beginning and an end.

Remembering the dead is not morbid.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  It is one of the most important characteristics of living that the dying are remembered with thanksgiving to the Lord.  I know that in many congregations one or more of the Easter services took place in the cemetery.  Again, this was not morbid at all.  It was a wonderful affirmation for Christians of something we have celebrated for many, many centuries.  As Israel identified the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob along with an affirmation that this living God was a God of the living, so do we remember with thanksgiving our fathers in the faith as affirmation of the truth that they live in Christ.

We do not have any family graves where we live.  We live far removed from family.  So being near the graves of loved ones who have died in the Lord is a privilege we do not take lightly.  I hope that we communicate this to our children.  It is love's duty to remember, recall, and rejoice in those who have died in the Lord and now rest from their labors.  We do have graves of those whose funerals I preached, whose bodies I lay into the dust of the earth, and whose lives I commended to the Lord in Jesus' name.  That is the privilege of serving so long in one place -- my ministry has connected me to so many people, so many graves, in so many places.  Again, it is not morbid or sad but a testament to the value we place on life -- particularly on this day to the lives given to protect and defend our liberty.  Though we know not their names, we know the price they paid.  Our every day is lived because of that price paid.  Thanks be to God!