Tribute to Triumph

I woke this morning with the word “tribute” on my heart.  By Saturday, we will have attended five funerals in the last two months.  Five people for whom we care dearly have crossed the heavenly threshold, and have been memorialized for it.

Each memorial is a celebration.  Each person is dear to the Lord.  “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15).

Ages 65, 50, 84, 98, and 92.

One man, four women.

Each one suffered difficult physical problems before death.

Each one’s life was a tribute to our God—a life lived by grace and faith.

Each one will be remembered long after death in the hearts of those with whom they spent this life. Those they influenced, those of us with whom they served will recall something they said, a mannerism , a lilt in the voice that brightened our days or made us laugh aloud.  We’ll remember road trips, quiet conversations, sporting events, campfires, songfests, practical jokes and heartfelt prayers.

Each one has been a gift from God to us—a connection that made our faith journey fuller, sometimes more of a challenge, and definitely an adventure.  Each one demonstrated the heart of the Father.

Thank You, Lord God, for these precious friends.  Thank You for sustaining us, holding us in our grief.  Thank You for teaching us through their lives.  Thank You that we will indeed see them again in eternity with Christ.  That's the triumph!

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:  “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).