the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Daily Devotionals
Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
Memorial Day is not that far off. My wife and I will be on vacation the weekend of Memorial Day. We'll be relaxing in beautiful, and hopefully sunny, Myrtle Beach. We have our reservations all set. Even know where we're going to attend church that Sunday morning. We have everything ready except for one small matter. The Saturday before Memorial Day we have traditionally gone to my parents' cemetery sites. That will be taken care of today.
I was born and raised in South Central Ohio. My grandfather was a farmer near Washington Court House and my Dad started out farming before deciding to work first for Moorman's after he and Mom married, then for Opekasit Center right around the time I was born. Dad was raised in Fayette County, Ohio, and never saw a need to leave the area until Mom got very ill in 1997. January of 1998 Mom and Dad moved to Florida. March 25 of that year Dad died. Mom followed December 14, 2002.
Since Dad's death I have been the one who goes to the family gravesite near London, Ohio, to make sure it's dressed and cared for. Doesn't seem like anyone else has ever been there except for funerals. I change the flowers a couple of times a year and make sure nothing has been disturbed. Mom and Dad are buried right next to my Dad's parents and his sister's husband. My wife and I have plots in the same cemetery, but in another location.
Every time I go there I reflect on those women who made that trip from Jerusalem to the gravesite of Jesus. What must have been going through their minds at the time. The sorrow of loss, the difficulty of coping without their friend, the fear of what they might find or encounter once they got to the grave. I am sure they were filled with concern as to what they would have to overcome to care for His body properly.
"Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, 'Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?' " Mark 16:1-3 When you go to honor your dead this Memorial Day remember that those who are in Christ Jesus will some day resurrect just as He did.
'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' Copyright 2010 © Tom Kelley. 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with their complete bio and a link to https://www.studylight.org/ 2) 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
