I recently attended the funeral of my aunt Prudy Branham. I felt very close to Prudy. My memories of her go back nearly sixty years, virtually my whole life. She was a kind and sweet person who I will undoubtedly miss.

I doubt if anyone really enjoys going to a funeral. The basic reason being, that for us to be willing to attend at all then someone must have died who was in the family, a friend or someone we knew. I can’t imagine anyone would want to lose people close to them so we really don’t like funerals.

Some people will not go to a funeral, not any ones. I know people like this. For them the emotional cost of being there is just too great. I can kind of sympathize with them but at the same time I believe they are missing a great opportunity because fundamentally funerals, for the living, are a good thing. Here’s why.

In this area and maybe elsewhere too, funerals are the main social event, again not because we enjoy them but to the credit of the people in this area, we are willing to take the time to be with those who have lost a loved one and to show a little respect to the family and just perhaps give a little comfort to those most deeply hurt by their loss. Also, I have noticed through the years that there are many faces, even family members that I almost never see except at funerals. If your family is like mine, you don’t visit much and I have rekindled numerous friendships at a funeral. Time has a tendency to separate us. Funerals help bring us back together.

However, the single most important benefit funerals provide is that it helps or even forces us to confront our own mortality. We cannot go to one funeral after another without it eventually dawning on us that, hey, this is going to happen to me too and that we need to be ready when it comes our turn, because it will happen. God reminds us in Ecc 7:2 that "it is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart." He continues the thought in verse 4 "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." One could conclude from these passages that those who will not attend funerals are foolish in not doing so. God even commands Christians to "rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep" Rom 12:15 therefore Christians can often be found at funerals.

Funerals help the living in another great way and that is in the presentation of Jesus Christ as the answer to what do we do about death. The vast majority of the proceedings at a funeral have as its focus not only the person who has died but also their relationship to Christ our savior, for it is in Him that we have hope of being reunited with our loved ones and overcoming the sting of death we all certainly face. I am not saying that you will always hear what one must do to be saved in the judgment but at least the eyes of those who need that information might be opened long enough for them to seek the truth and respond favorably to the gospel call.

Send comments or questions to the Clintwood Church of Christ, POB 746, Clintwood, Va. 24228 or E-mail me at bryanwa@ntelos.net Check out our web page at clintwoodchurchofchrist.com