Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

Kinta Christian Cemetary

Just came back from the cemetary. It was hot and sunny (no funeral rain like that in the movie). We were having the service under a canopy right beside the tomb.

Before the service started, I walked around the cemetary to look for familar names and took a few pictures.

Probably the late person's favorite hymn?

The dead don't need Yellow Pages anymore

I was given a yellow chrysanthemum, which was dismantled from the funeral wreaths

Tossing flowers into the grave before it was close

I'd been to this cemetary more than 10 times during these 3+ years in Ipoh (if you are married to a pastor you get to visit places where people usually don't). Pr.WS has conducted funerals where there were crowds, and also those that nobody else besides the ministers and elders attended. We had had funerals during rain or right under the sun, for the very young to the very old. No matter how, at the end, it's still ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Death is a certainty and an unknown - we are sure we are going to die one day but don't know when. God said to Adam after the Fall, "By the sweat of of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" (Genesis 3:19). There's no way we can escape this.

Death is also a deep sleep, a rest from the suffering of the world. However, the dust, the soil, the earth, is not our final destination. It's only our temporary resting place. We have this hope that one day Jesus Christ is going to come back again and bring us back to our heavenly home.

For Christians, death is not the end of life. Instead, it's a good night rest for a fresh start, a renewed life. Let's look forward to that!