Riverwood Presbyterian Church

Devotion

Stupid things we say

by Peggy Drinkard

It seems that when we don’t know what to say, most of us go ahead and say something anyway. One of the most asinine comments is often heard in funeral parlors during “visitation.” It is, “doesn’t he (she) look natural?” I say asinine because the one thing the deceased most certainly do not look is natural. At least, no dead bodies I’ve ever seen did. They look the very opposite. Death is the most unnatural and horrible phenomenon there is. It is the ultimate enemy…as well as the ultimate consequence of our collective sins, beginning, of course, with our first parents. That is one reason the sermon series we’ve been hearing on Corinthians is important and dear to me. A lot of people I love have died in my lifetime, and it has never felt right or natural. It feels very wrong. The sudden loss and complete disconnect with a big part of your life. The emptiness. The helplessness. Once someone has died, there is NOTHING you can do to help them…comfort them…bring them back into your earthly existence. I am so Thankful to be told, with the authority of God’s word, that this horrible enemy is being conquered and will be completely destroyed one day…that death will die….or, as the scriptures say, be “swallowed up in victory.” Only then will everything resume its state of creation. Only when there is no more death will everything be fully “natural” again.