I have awakened this morning with this sense of somberness. Two funerals, that I know of, will be conducted this day in our city. One for the young Marine Sergeant killed just one week ago in Afghanistan and the other a man I never met but have been asked to sing as part of his funeral service. Somber is not a mood I usually reside in but that describes me this morning. Perhaps it was a bad night of dreams or perhaps it is all part of God's way of preparing me for this day!
Late yesterday afternoon when I realized I would be unable to attend the funeral processional of the Marine I had planned to attend due to the other funeral, I had this overwhelming need to drive through the cemetery where, coincidentally, both men would be buried this day. Seeing the hundreds of American flags lining the drive through the grounds gave me this sense of duty, worth and value and I was choking back tears in just being in such a hallowed place. Arlington affects me the same way as does Gettysburg and Antietam and Normandy; it is a sense of connectivity with the past and it courses my circulatory system and tears just begin to flow.
Today I ask for your prayers of comfort for these two hurting families. Funerals are not for the departed but for those left behind. Funerals, for a person that have given their heart and soul to our Lord, are celebrations of a home going. It is hard to celebrate at times but that is the place we should strive to be in a very spiritual matter. I am honored to be part of a man's home going this morning and it has been my prayer that in that service that something that is said or sung will touch a heart in such a way to change a direction of a life going in the wrong direction. This is ministry and I am so humbled to get to do this sort of ministry!
So for today, somber will have to trump world events, market swings, insurgent attacks, political partisanism. Today it is my hope and my prayer for every reader that we take this precious gift called life and enjoy every moment, every breath it gives for life is a gift from a Loving God. I feel the tears welling up again!
Be blessed this day!
praying for them and thanking God for using you. You'll do well for the Lord as you've shown over and over again.
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