Funerals

Today was my first funeral as a Vicar. Before the funeral began my supervisor asked if I had been to many funerals. I said, "yes," and then I began to reflect on all the funerals I have been to in my short 24 years of life. There are a lot of really important people in my life that have died. I have been to the funeral of my paternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, paternal great-grandpa, paternal great-grandma, friends from high school, and most recently, two of my cousins this past summer. Not to say that I was not thinking about my loved ones that are now part of the communion of saint as I went to this funeral, but this question from my supervisor had really made me think about these people. This is the first funeral I have been to where I have been so removed from the family and the deceased person. Yet, as the grandson-in-law spoke about his grandfather-in-law, the deceased, I got a little choked up. He spoke so highly of this loved one that I felt like I knew the deceased man, even though I had never met him before in my life. It was a small, but beautiful funeral filled with reminders of God's love and salvation for all of God's children. Thanks be to God!