Celebrating Our Heroes of Faith
My sis sent me this photo of her, her daughter and granddaughter. They went to the cemetery to celebrate Mom’s 100th on her birthday, October 31st. We all had expected to celebrate her on this side of heaven, but God had something better in mind. Oh, so much better!
Yesterday, November 1st (BTW – Happy November!!) was All Saints Day – a day of remembrance that began in AD 609. This tradition encourages us to remember and emulate our heroes of faith. What a gift it is to us that there were those who paved the way for us with lives devoted to God and many of whom were martyred for their faith.
Today, November 2nd, is All Souls’ Day when we celebrate everyone in heaven. Think of our loved ones who have died and are there where we will join them one day! This is our opportunity to be happy for, and with them. They have no pain, no frustration, and all they know is absolute, complete peace and happiness because they are in the presence of God. We rejoice with them!
All Saints Day and All Souls Day offer us a wonderful consoling and beautiful way of looking at death. Those of us who have a relationship with God and His Son, Jesus Christ, look at death as leaving our “temporary” home on earth to go to our home sweet, eternal home in heaven. There are many who consider death an unpleasant topic and don’t even want to discuss the subject. Some people even refuse to make a will because that forces them to consider their mortality.
Here’s the positive way of looking at death. This earth has been our internship for heaven. It’s the “holding room” for the ride of our life. You and I, and everyone we love will eventually die so then death had better be our friend and not our enemy.
Today, we acknowledge our loved ones who died, and we embrace our memories with them and the great hope of meeting up with them in heaven. On this day, I purposely recall my precious grandmother who introduced me to my future husband, my firey-preacher grandfather, my angel mom, and precious dad, all my siblings, my beloved husband and now, the oldest member who graduated, Mom Lydia. Mom understood it long before she passed on. She kept saying “I want to go home!” Now, she IS home sweet home.
There are many others who influenced and impacted my life. On this day I get to admit that I miss them and I’m not even ashamed to shed a few tears for them. After all, Jesus wept over the death of His friend, Lazarus.
I don’t shed tears because I lack faith or because my faith is weak. I shed tears because I miss them. It’s okay. It’s just temporary for us who carry on with the joy of seeing them one day soon! In the meantime, I’ll keep singing: “In the sweet bye and bye, we shall meet on that beautiful shore” as I I continue to let Jesus make sense of it all for me! How about you?