It’s been a busy several weeks. Last Sunday, I went to the Chicago area to attend the funeral of my friend, Erik. A service was planned for Monday afternoon, with visitation following; and then Erik was to be cremated. It seems that cremation is becoming more common as the decades go by.
In fact, while I was waiting to gain entrance to the service, I picked up a flyer that gave information about the funeral home – it turns out that they also provide aquamation services. I had never heard of this but it has to do with using water and lye to dissolve a corpse, rather than the fire of a crematorium.
Apparently, people who are more concerned with a carbon footprint and want to be more “green” or environmentally friendly, think that aquamation is a better way to take care of our earth than cremation. But either way, cremation or aquamation, brings us back to the point that the end results in ashes.
There are people who fear that if they are cremated, it would interfere with God’s ability to give them a new body when they are resurrected in the endtimes. Of course, this gets into the book of Revelation and what happens when the story of the eternal reign of Christ unfolds.
But I don’t think that God is limited in what He can do with our bodies. We are told in the Psalms that God saw our unformed bodies and created each of us according to His will. God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. In other words, there isn’t anything that God can’t do. And that includes giving us new bodies, even if we dispose of our earthly bodies through cremation or aquamation.
Most people have heard that Adam, the first man, was created from the dust of the earth but don’t realize that God put Adam in the Garden of Eden after he was created. In other words, he was created from the dust (dirt) of the ground and then God filled him with divine breath – giving Adam life. This is the big theme of Genesis – forming and then filling.
God also told Adam that to dust he would return and cremation is not in opposition to that promise of God. That brings us to another reason that I went to the Chicago area earlier this week.
Our youngest brother, Ken, passed away on February 29, 2020 just as the pandemic was getting started. We had Ken cremated and with all the changes and problems during the COVID crisis, Doug and I were unable to coordinate our calendars to have a small service for Ken and spread his ashes. He was cremated and we have been trying to plan a time to get together and appropriately honor him.
Thankfully, that opportunity came on Monday morning when Doug and I were together and were able to finally return Ken to the earth. It was a fitting time for closure. I am so glad that Doug and I were able to finally put Ken “to rest.” In fact, I feel more restful knowing that this has been completed.
Tonight’s verse is the one that tells us about the creation of Adam. Moses, the author of Genesis, tells us in Genesis 2:7-8, “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.” In Genesis 3:19, God tells Adam, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” The circle of life would be completed…
My encouragement this evening is that no matter whether we are buried, cremated, go through aquamation or experience any other form of returning to the earth, God looks forward to our entrance into heaven. My prayer is that we can mourn the loss of our loved ones while recognizing the eternal life ahead regardless of how our final earthly presence ends. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…