I am an outdoor girl. I love nothing more than walking grassy paths and breathing in fresh air. The whole adventure resets me.
Since I live in a subdivision, I walk pavement often, which I can settle for in a pinch. When the opportunity for an earthy walking path arises, I'm there to get my fix.
But, as I get older, I'm a winter weather wimp. I can't walk for long when it's too cold or too muddy until today. It was a glorious 66F/19C and sunny perfection, punching a hole in the endless winter weather.
I threw my walking shoes in the trunk of my car for afternoon break time. The plan was to walk the city cemetery behind Immanuel. A favorite outdoor walking path of mine.
Walking through the cemetery, I asked myself why I was renewed when I came here. After all, cemeteries have a creepy reputation.
As I walked the cemetery, I sensed my body was connecting with the resting, the eternal stillness of these bodies laid to rest. The grind and weight of life was done. Sufferings had ended. Peace.
In all this resting around me, I have found relationships. I know, call me crazy. I walked through the cemetery chatting with a few gravestones.
"Hey, look at your big family! Y'all are all over this cemetery!"
"Oh, I've heard about you! You were quite a card :)"
"Goodness, tell me what happened here."
"Oh, precious little one. So much love buried here."
"I heard what happened. You are loved. Rest in peace."
"Hi ______! We are doing well and think of you often."
"Look at these coins placed on your headstone. You changed lives. You are missed."
This cloud of local witnesses encourages me. It's hard to explain fully because I have not met most of them in the realm of the living. I have learned from stories passed on to me that they were not perfect people then, just like we are not perfect people now. They seem to urge me to do better than they did with life.
My response to the dead and resting is the same as to the living. Kindness. Love.
Romans 8:38-39, "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Death cannot stop love.
1 Corinthians 13:8, "Love never ends."
Christians are resurrection people. Because of Christ's love, death did not have the final word.
I'm not gonna lie. Death does sting and cause pain for the living who must go on. But, I believe that death does not have the final word at the cemetery. Love does.
Love punches a hole through death like a glorious, warm day in the mid-winter.
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