Looking back and ahead

Today is quite the in-between for our spirituality. For the last two days, we have been remembering the death and silence of our Lord--tomorrow His resurrection from the dead. Today, we are in between those stations of our Lord's mission. On this particular day of waiting, we went to observe the recent death of a spiritual father. This particular gentleman, a member of the church we've been with for 7 weeks, had been a faithful participant in His church community for over 70 years. Recently, He was named citizen of the year in this community, where he headed such projects as Habitat for Humanity and the Boy Scouts. Ever since Shannon and I arrived here, he was always a faithful greeter--always letting us know how happy he was that we were here and always making sure that we had been invited to all of the church functions.

In quite a few of the meetings I was involved in, His words were always spiritual--his sentences always shaped by words and lessons from Scripture. In fact, only a few nights before his death, he said something in a meeting that left the remainder of the attendees in a moment of silence--as none could disagree or add anything to his humble wisdom. While those gathered at the funeral today probably had more experiences with this man than Shannon and I did, we both had enough to know that we had encountered someone very special. Of our travels so far, I doubt we have found anyone who modeled Christ more than he. I am thinking of Paul's words, "Death has lost its sting," and wondering why I and others in this community felt stung by all of this. On this day of waiting, the in-between, we look to tomorrow. We look to the day when our Lord was raised, and in so doing, hope to understand more about death, resurrection, and the meaning behind "Death has lost its sting."
Happy Easter from the Travelers!