Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Over the years I have officiated at hundreds of funeral services, some of them for members of my own family, others for members of my congregation. There are others where I officiated at the request of the funeral home. The small church that I pastor even holds services at a local funeral home.
Several weeks ago I was entering the funeral home through the employee’s door and happened to glance up to the alcove above the door. I could see a bird’s nest and the head of a small swallow. It was a mother hatching her clutch of eggs. The following week there were several tiny heads visible in the nest. Her eggs had hatched! In a few days they were all gone.
Last Sunday I was entering through that door again and looked up to the nest. There was the mother swallow’s head again. Another clutch of eggs were soon to be hatched to enter the world of soaring high and catching insects.
The swallows have made me aware that in this funeral home that has witnessed many tears at the passing of loved ones, there is also new birth and life. For those of us who have been born again, a funeral home is not just a place of death, but a time to celebrate the entry into a life that will never end. Life among death!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil