Some stand out to me, like such services for Harriet Decker, Elsie Eisenbraun, Kathy Abbitt, Clint Bolton. I tend to enjoy summary reflections of things, especially lives.
The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
-- Nahum 1:7
This verse was shared at a memorial service I attended yesterday. It was presented, in part, as a summary of what the life of the deceased, Barbara Manahan, valued in her life. It is interesting how death creates such opportunities to reflect on life. I wonder if such things are the way the dead speak to the living, about what is important in life.
Funerals (honest ones anyway) can connect the realities of life and death, to life and death, in good ways. They remind us that the two are not as fitted to either / or, and good / bad, as they are to both / and. We need a deeper understanding that life and death are not competing with each other, they are working together, as parts of reality ((Jn 12:24) They show us the connection between our humanity and the divine. In other words, neither one of these cannot be fully experienced without the other.
Funerals are often like a 'reset' of these truths for me. They whisper a kind of peace to me about the hope we have in the goodness of God that extends beyond our physical lives.
