Discarding the Shroud

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.
He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.  Isaiah 25:1, 7, 8

My mother died in my home in 1998.  Because she was under the care of Hospice, she did not need to go to the hospital to be pronounced dead.  The funeral director and his assistant came right to the house to pick her up.  As I waited for them to arrive, I pictured them taking her out in a black plastic body bag, and this was a chilling thought. The day was cold and snowy.  Black plastic seemed so harsh and lacking in any comfort.  But, when the undertaker arrived, I realized that the body bag was soft blue corduroy.  Perhaps it was lined with black plastic, but that is not what I saw.  I saw my Mother's favorite color and something that would enfold her as she traveled through the snow to the hearse.  Such a small thing...but, it has come to my mind more times than I can recount over the years.  Always, there is a sense of peace in the mental image of her body shrouded in soft blue fabric.

But...what if the shroud could be not only changed to something comforting, but totally discarded?  What if death could be swallowed up in victory forever?  What if the one thing we can be sure of, in addition to taxes, never happened again?

That is the message of Easter.  In rising from the dead, Christ has forever conquered death.  Death only has power as long as He allows it.  He planned long ago to release man from the grasp of certain death.  He has not just changed the shroud into something more aesthetic.  He has destroyed the shroud!

That is the message of Easter.

Here is my response:  I will exalt and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things!

This Life is not the End

It is Good Friday evening, and a song I wrote about 25 years ago just came to my mind.

The Dawn

If I had stood at Calvary, and viewed the darkness there,

Looked up and seen my dying friend, and felt the deep despair,

Of seeing helpless, him on whom, I thought I could depend,

I think I would have cried out, "Oh, God, this is the end."

If I had stood outside the tomb and seen the awful stone,

That sealed in the kindest man that I had ever known,

I might have thought, "He wasn't God, he was only just a friend."

And in my grief, I would have cried, "Oh, God, this is the end."

But a new day was coming. There was sunrise near at hand.

There would be a brand new morning. New life was in the plan,

For Christ conquered death, and rose again, upon an Easter morn.

And just as surely as He lives, we too with see the dawn.

And if today you stand here, so overwhelmed by life,

If you cannot make sense of the confusion and the strife,

Put your faith in Him who conquered death, eternity you'll spend,

In lifting up your praise to Him. This life is not the end.

For a new day is coming. There is sunrise near at hand.

There will be a brand new morning. New life is in the plan.

For Christ conquered death, and rose again, upon an Easter morn.

And just as surely as He lives, we too will see the dawn.

It is hard to imagine the overwhelming grief that Christ's friends must have experienced on Good Friday, but joy was just around the corner. Morning was coming.

And....morning is coming!