"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will be changed -- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." ... 1 Corinthians 15:51

Nearly four years ago, my mother died. The latter part of her life was fraught with pain, physical disfiguring, and depression. I try to remember her in earlier times when she looked the way she appeared in the many photographs I have of her. It's hard. The following passage discovered during recent reading puts things into perspective.

>In the dream I would be the age I really was, living the life I was really living, and I would discover that my mother was still alive. . . She would be looking quite well -- not exactly youthful, not entirely untouched by the paralyzing disease that held her in its grip . . . but so much better than I remembered that I would be astonished. . . I recovered then what in waking life I had lost -- my mother's liveliness of face and voice before her throat muscles stiffened and a woeful, impersonal mask fastened itself over her features. How could I have forgotten this, I would think in the dream -- the casual humor she had, not ironic but merry, the lightness and impatience and confidence? I would say that I was sorry I hadn't been to see her in such a long time - meaning not that I felt guilty but that I was sorry I had kept a bugbear in my mind, instead of this reality -- and the strangest, kindest thing of all to me was her matter-of-fact reply. Oh, well, she said, better late than never. I was sure I'd see you someday.
Friend of My Youth, Alice Munro

Isn't it wonderful that as Christians, a dream like the fictional character experienced -- i.e., an illusion transparent in its hopefulness -- isn't necessary? Our reality is that we will meet our loved ones in heaven,. Halleluiah!

O God of grace and glory, we remember before you today [insert name(s). We thank you for giving him/her to us to know and to love as a companion in our pilgrimage on earth. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us your aid, so we may see in death the gate to eternal life, that we may continue our course on earth in confidence until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before us; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
... Lutheran Book of Worship: Burial of the Dead, page 207

Contributed by Nancy E.
Published Sunday July 18, 2004
Week 34 of Liturgical Year C