Funerals

I attended the funeral for the father of a good friend of mine last week. This friend’s dad had shown me a great amount of kindness at a time when I needed it, and I never forgot that. He was a good man, who unfortunately had to suffer the ravages of cancer before he passed on to greener pastures.

I’ve often been struck at funerals by a sense of peace. Oh, to be sure, there is also a sense of great grief and of sadness as well. But, in most cases, I feel a sense of peace, that the departed is going home to be with the One who created him.

I got that same feeling again, during a remarkably calm and peaceful service, and I knew that my friend’s father was indeed well on his way home.
What struck me most about this particular service, however, was what happened after the service. My friend didn’t know that I was attending the service, as it had been a whirlwind after his father’s death, and we just hadn’t really touched base about it. As I went up to him to offer my condolences after the funeral, I touched him on the shoulder from behind, and he spun around in surprise at seeing me there.

Then, a wonderful thing happened. Instead of the usual shaking of hands that most guys do, we just hugged one another in a very spontaneous display of both grief, and joy that the long battle with cancer was all over. Nothing much was said between us, and honestly, nothing much needed to be said. There was an understanding between us that everything was going to be all right, and that as long as a person has friends, he is never truly alone.

The moment lasted but a handful of seconds, but it is a moment I will never truly forget.

For you see, in that moment alone, I believe the two of us transferred to each other God’s entire hopes and dreams for our species, namely, to love one another, and by so doing, love God. That’s truly all God wants. We tend to complicate it, by building hierarchies and bureaucracies around this message, so that it gets harder and harder to hear sometimes.

For my friend and me, for that moment, we heard the message loud and clear.

Love one another friends. I truly believe its all He really wants out of us.

-The Minister