Those were the words I heard yesterday right after I answered the phone at my office.
“What Funeral?” I said in a confused expression.
My dad was surprised that I didn’t know what he was talking about. He quickly told me of a young man who was killed a couple days ago and he was related to a family that attends our church.
“The pastor announced it this past Sabbath, didn’t you hear him?” “No I didn’t.”
I had to leave the Sanctuary on business a couple of times so I figured the pastor may have announced it while I was out.
“Daddy,” as I call him, expressed to me his desire to go to this young man’s funeral to pay respects to the family members who he had been good friends over the years.
Today at 11:00 a.m. my 87-year old dad and I attended the funeral of a young 15-year-old teenager who was killed by a hit and run driver who was under the influence of drugs. I had never seen him before but when I looked at the obituary, my heart became full of grief to see such a young person had left this world needlessly because someone who was under the influence of drugs got behind the wheel of a car and in a few careless minutes snuffed out the life of an innocent young man who was just walking down the street.
My mind began to wander as I looked around the room and saw his fellow school peers sitting all around. My eyes then went to the mother as my heart went out to her, knowing how she was feeling sitting there looking at her young son in the casket. I thought about two of my sons who are at odds with each other and have been for over six or seven years. Life is so short and unpredictable. No one knows what the next instant, second minute will bring. I pray that the Lord will not allow a death to bring those two siblings together. I think of how this whole thing happened between my two sons; it was something I said in the spur of a moment, not thinking of how it would drive a wedge between two of the children I love so deeply. I have strived, prayed, manipulated and everything to bring them back together as two loving siblings, but to no avail. Whenever I attend a funeral, this particular circumstance comes to my mind and I become emotional all over again.
After the minister spoke and the viewing began; I went up to see the body of a young person I had never seen before, but all of a sudden my eyes focused on the body and the innocence of the teenaged boy. When I saw the display of grief and tears from his peers, it broke my heart. I wanted to reach out and hug each and every one of them just to let them know that someone really loves them. Even though I didn’t know the young man, who passed away, in my heart it was one of the saddest funerals I attended just because it was a young kid. I love young people (little kids, big kids, teens, and youth) and it hurts me to see what’s happening to them.
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3 comments:
I understand how you feel. Too many of our young people are losing their lives to violence, drunk driving/drivers and even racing in cars. Every single day I read something or hear it on the news. It is so sad. Especially to see the broken people who are left behind. Just keep praying for your sons and God will work it out.
Prioritybooks is me, Rose.
Funerals bring many issues to the surface.
Tragedies with young people are happening all too frequent and very sad. I'm blessed to have made it thus far.
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