Undertakers are sometimes remarkably jovial people.
You might not normally associate them with humour but one of them told me this story recently.
The end was drawing close for an old lady and she invited the minister to call to discuss arrangements for hymns and readings at the funeral. After a while she asked for one last request.
‘Please Your Reverence, if people come to look at me in my coffin, make sure the undertaker has put a fork in my right hand.’
Curiosity got the better of the clergy and he asked why.
‘Because’ she explained, ‘when we were kids and Mammy cleared away the dinner plates she always told us to hold on to our forks because something better was coming.’
None of us are enthusiastic when it comes to dying but the New Testament does give considerable encouragement to followers of Jesus.
In chains on what was essentially a 1st century ‘Death Row’, church-builder Paul writes a surprisingly bright and cheery letter to friends in Philippi, saying he’s ready for whatever comes. Should it be death he says, ‘I desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better.’ (Philippians 1v23)
Sometimes we console someone suffering bereavement by saying, ‘They’ve gone to a better place.’
If the deceased was a Christian, seems we’re right!
You might not normally associate them with humour but one of them told me this story recently.
The end was drawing close for an old lady and she invited the minister to call to discuss arrangements for hymns and readings at the funeral. After a while she asked for one last request.
‘Please Your Reverence, if people come to look at me in my coffin, make sure the undertaker has put a fork in my right hand.’
Curiosity got the better of the clergy and he asked why.
‘Because’ she explained, ‘when we were kids and Mammy cleared away the dinner plates she always told us to hold on to our forks because something better was coming.’
None of us are enthusiastic when it comes to dying but the New Testament does give considerable encouragement to followers of Jesus.
In chains on what was essentially a 1st century ‘Death Row’, church-builder Paul writes a surprisingly bright and cheery letter to friends in Philippi, saying he’s ready for whatever comes. Should it be death he says, ‘I desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better.’ (Philippians 1v23)
Sometimes we console someone suffering bereavement by saying, ‘They’ve gone to a better place.’
If the deceased was a Christian, seems we’re right!
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