Recently, I was present at yet another funeral and then another: for the 93-year-old father of a church member and for a 94-year-old church pastor who was highly respected. Both persons had experienced over 90 years of life and had contributed much to society.
I attended the pastor’s funeral only as one of the mourners. There, I learned a great deal about his outlook on life that was founded on Scripture and how he had served the church so admirably, and I heard the testimonies of people he had shepherded. As for the other funeral service, the father of my church member had not come to faith. So I prepared a message that focused on offering comfort and hope to the departed’s family, though without emphasizing Christian beliefs or singing Christian songs.
I reminded myself that I had to prepare a message that would be easily understood by non-believers. On that occasion, it was a question of the nature of man: How do you see human life? Let’s look at Genesis 2:7. It says, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Man’s physical body is nothing but the dust of the earth; however, life exists in him because God breathed it into him. That, Genesis teaches, is the nature of man. The existence that you and I have comes from that breath of life. And when we die, we will find ourselves standing before God. My prayer is that I will have lived in such a way that God might say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”