BEEN TO A FUNERAL LATELY?

I don't know that I remember the first funeral I ever attended. I do vivadly remember the death of my Uncle I.B. who was killed in a tragic accident, and I served as a pall bearer as a boy at my Grandfather's funeral. There was always a sense of finality at those early services.

As I matured in Christ, I understood that physical death is part of God's plan. Old bodies wear out because of sin; we don't want to hang around in them too long.

Our attitudes about death and about funerals are very tied to our attitude about God. Is He concerned? Does He have a plan for us? Why are we put in these positions? Everyone of us faces the same questions of life. It's how we anwer them that count.

My Mother and Dad lost a boy at birth in the hills of northern Arkansas during the depression. There was very little medical help in those days. The doctor, who was drunk that night, did not arrive on time, and the breach baby was still born. I can only imagine the pain and sorrow and anger of my parents during those very dark hours.

My Dad was a day laborer, and he often worked in 1934 for less than a dollar a day. They were struggling just to eat. So my Dad, with his own hands, carved a little stone that sits on the grave for Darrell Don Cotter in Leslie, Arkansas. I often visualize that small group of people gathered around the little gravesite, crying, grieving, and looking to God for support.

I know that they looked to God, because that is the way they raised me. Even though I didn't come along for another five years, they were preparing their hearts and lives to greet me.

RL is going to a funeral today; we just read in the paper of a 102 year old friend who died. I have but a few years to go before my own death.

I want my children and grandchildren and friends to be ready for death. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me."