The Day Before Easter Is a Good Day for a Funeral

The flower beds around our church building
are filled with tulips and phlox in full bloom.

If one must go to a funeral, let it be the funeral of a fellow-Christian on the day before Easter.
That was my thought this afternoon after we went to say, "We're so sorry" to Bethany Bellamy at the visitation for her husband, Tim, who died in his sleep one week ago. Tim and Bethany are young (at least a lot younger than Evelyn and me!). He's usually on the platform playing keyboards for one or more of our worship services, and we had worked with Bethany in more than one Christmas pageant in the past. They attended a short-term small group I led this fall, and all of us were shocked at Tim's sudden, unexpected death.
But we Christians say Christ's resurrection gives us hope in the face of death. We believe Christ's resurrection gives the promise that all of us will live again. And tomorrow we will celebrate the life we find only in him while we remember that this life is not the end and this world is not our home.
It was a beautiful day today, above 70 degrees, bright sunshine, brilliant blue sky. After the winter comes the spring. After death comes life as surprisingly beautiful as the green lawns and multicolored tulips and blindingly white pear trees in full bloom everywhere this weekend.
As wonderful as spring's new life is to see and smell, it happens in a world where Satan still brings disappointment and dysfunction and disease and death. We can only imagine how wonderful the next life will be without any of the devil's influence and in the eternal presence of the Author of Life.