A Final Act of Love

I listened last night to a radio show on a topic that just never crossed my mind ~ home funerals. It's the other end of the trend in home births.

At first I was fascinated by the "new" idea of taking care of our dead family members. As I continued listening to the interview, however, I realized that home burials used to be the norm. The funeral business was only established in the United States after the Civil War.

Those being interviewed said that strangely enough, handling the body and preparing it for burial gave them a real sense of closure. It really is an act of love.

Mary prepared Christ's body for burial while He was still alive.

Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, annointing...Jesus...The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. One of His disciples...said "Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denari and given to the poor?"...But Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always." (John 12 NKJV)

Only days later, Christ would be crucified and His body was lovingly prepared for burial and laid to rest by fellow believers.

Joseph of Arimathea...asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus...And Nicodemus...also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified the was a garden,and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus." (John 19:38-42)

I must admit that while a funeral home prepared Dad, it was somehow comforting to have his box of ashes resting in my living room for another 3 months before we took him to his final resting place.

So this "new" idea of home funerals has now taken up residence in a back room of my brain and most likely will come out for a visit once in a while. Since our culture doesn't like to discuss death, this will make for an interesting topic of conversation at the dinner table.