SHELL GAME

John 11:25-26 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (NIV)

Years ago, when my oldest son was my only son, my wife and his grandmother took him to tend the family graves in grandma's small home town. While weeding and planting flowers, grandma made sure she filled little Eric in on who these people were, how he was related to them, what lives they had lived, and so on. Eric struggled to make sense, as only a four old can, to understand how people who were now "planted" beneath him could have been at one time so alive.

Eric: "Are they down there Mommie?"

Mom: "Well, their bodies are down there honey, but the person we knew isn't there. They're up in heaven with God."

Eric: [Crinkled forehead, knitted eyebrows and a look of bewilderment in his eyes].

Mom knew she was at one of those life-lesson moments and was struggling not to blow it. Seeing walnuts strewn around the graves, my wife had an inspired thought.

Mom: "It's like these walnut shells, Eric. The person's body is like the shell. The person we knew and loved isn't in it anymore. The shell is empty when we bury it."

Eric: [Uncrinkled forehead, raised eyebrows, and a four year old look of "Ah ha!" on his face] "Oh, Mommie! You mean when someone dies, the shell goes in the ground and the nut goes to heaven!"

A budding theologian was born!

As we age, one place we inevitably find ourselves going to more and more is the funeral parlor. Not because most of us can't get enough of floral carpets, heavy draperies or Muzac droning out "Nearer My God To Thee". It's because more and more of the people we once knew are no longer around. Calling hours and funerals aren't fun for anyone; the families, attendees, nor the "guest of honor." I've been to funerals that ran the gamut from victory celebrations for an aged saint to heart-rending partings when a young child was taken from the loving and protective arms of their earthly parents. Regardless of the level of grief felt or whether I knew the deceased well or not at all, I've always had a similar reaction to viewing the body: Whoever and whatever that person was, that lifeless corpse isn't them. In thinking this way, I get a sense of peace and comfort that who I knew and possibly loved is not boxed up in that coffin. Who I knew continues on somewhere else. Now where that somewhere else might be and how we get there is a topic for a devotion all its own. But if in this life being a Christian gives us nothing more than a sense of hope walking away from someone's calling hours rather than a sense of hopelessness, then that one reason alone makes being Christian all worth it.

Now some may say this is my way of disassociating myself from the threat and fear of death. Some may say this is only a thinly veiled attempt at rationalization. And others may accuse me of denying my own mortality. Say what you will. All I know is that at one time there was another wise person who agreed with me: "Sure Daddy, it's O.K.! That's only the shell. The nut's up in heaven!"

Thank God for the promise and hope of eternity He gives to all of us "nuts."

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