Letting Go and Accepting More

Some amazing people in my life have passed away lately.  A few more are very ill and I know it isn’t much longer.  The entire thing has made me ponder what death really means for a believer.  As a staff member of a church I have been to a lot of funerals.  My favorite funeral moment was while attending a friend’s grandmother’s funeral in Tennessee.  I witnessed a conversation that went something like this:

*Young boy walks to the front of the sanctuary with an adult and looks at the casket.*

“I thought you said Granny was in heaven?”

“Yes, she is.”

*Kid blinks and looks back in the casket.*

“Then why did she come back?”

Great question, right?  As a child, I remember the idea of death and heaven being a strange mixture of over my head and terrifying.  I didn’t want to go to heaven.  Don’t get me wrong, I did not want the alternative; I just wanted to stay here.  I wanted the safety of what I know.  I wanted my bed, my house, my toys, and my mom.  God, however, doesn’t want that for me. He wants more.  He wants to give me peace and beauty….a place with no tears.

It seems as though in both life and death God is constantly calling us to let go of what we know and accept more.