Celebrate Life And Not Death!
Isaiah 38
KJV
18+ For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
It is now a fact that each Saturday is a Funeral Day, a day set aside to finally bid farewell to the dead. Such is the acceptance and practice of the day and event that facilities are inadequate, leading to a long queue for booking.
Event planning is now a lucrative business as organisers are reaping a huge harvest every weekend!
That our labour and our journey here will cease one day is a fact. That one day our lips will close and refuse to open to utter a word is a fact.
No one knows what his /her last words would be before he/she takes his/her bow! That no one knows who his/her last visitors would be before he/she makes his/her exit is a fact.
These are mysteries that we can not fathom, and it is for this reason that at the close of each day we make checks and contacts with loved ones before going to bed, for it may be our last encounter.
And also, it is for this reason that we should speak kind and encouraging words to one another before we part company anytime we meet.
On Saturday I joined a sizable crowd of mourners at a remembrance service for a cousin who passed away last year. It was brief and very solemn!
Interestingly I was with her a few weeks before she passed. I visited and sat with her and had a long chat full of fun and laughter! She was eighty.
I’ve always tried to recall the last words a deceased friend/brother /relative etc , said to me before exiting this life. I’ve always tried to recall my last encounter, conversation etc these always make a profound impact on me!
There is no praise, no celebration
Etc in the grave where we would lie alone. Mourners and sympathisers would walk away when the last prayer is said and the earth is heaped over our coffin; and we are left in thick darkness with none to comfort or console!
The cemetery then becomes our new place of “ residence “ till the trumpet shall sound to open the doors of our tombs, and we see the daylight once again though in a different form!
As I walked away from the remembrance event her words, fun, jokes etc; kept reverberating and I could hear her loud and clear as if she was in my presence!
We indeed celebrated her life as we recall her words, advices, jokes etc. How would we remember you? With what will we reconstruct your life among us? With me, some of my write-ups will be read, and some of my favourite sayings such as “ in the midst of fools it is foolishness to be wise!” will be mentioned. Ha ha ha!
A thought to share