Ashes to ashes?

It's been coming up in conversation frequently of late--the need for a body, even when we're finished with it. When the lungs have stopped breathing. When the heart's stopped beating. When the mind's stopped thinking.

Many moons ago, as a much younger and inexperienced mortician, I was strongly opposed to the cremation concept. It wasn't because it knocked me out of the opportunity to sell high-end caskets and outer burial containers to grieving families. Those folks who are compelled and often (even usually) easily influenced by funeral directors and funeral home sales people pushing them to fork out loads of money for funeral or memorial service expenses.

I do admit that my poor opinion of cremation was emotionally based. I remember telling my colleagues that if my own immediate family demanded to be cremated, I'd not honor their wishes because I found the idea of it to be so upsetting.

That was then. Things have changed.

I'm no longer determined to not only be physically preserved and protected, but I no longer feel a need to be placed in my very own mausoleum, complete with waterfalls flowing into palm-edged pools and fancy torches burning round-the-clock to keep the place lit up and magnificent.

I'm older, therefore more experienced, more knowledgeable and better equipped to wrap my head around what was once the unthinkable. In turn, my heart has stopped getting all wigged out over the cremation concept and I realize I can live without my body's final resting place being my custom-designed mausoleum.

I can not only live with the idea of being cremated. I've decided that's the best option for me.

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foto via Alicia Jaye Phillips of On Story Street (CLICK HERE to visit her website & online gallery)

Surprising chatter

Please don't think this post is an anti-funeral shout out or that I'm attempting to persuade you to only consider cremation as your preferred method for final disposition. That's the uptight, white-collar term for what's to happen to your body when you're finished with it! 

My reason for writing about it today is to simply pose some questions. The questions formed during numerous conversations about cremation as opposed to casketed-remains burial. The surprise I experienced are the reasons given for the opposition to cremation and that the reasons are harbored by folks who are of Christian persuasion. That's the aspect that makes the reasons not only incredible but ridiculous.

As a Christian, by that term I mean not only a follower of Jesus Christ's teachings but also having a personal relationship with Him, I'm confident that all things, big and small, are subject to His jurisdiction. 

I don't believe in evolution but divine creation. I also love science and do not see the two being in opposition to one another. Have to put that on the table before I address the ideologies I continue to encounter from Christians regarding what God can do, what He can work with, and what He can't.

In a fundamental belief and of acceptance of Christians that all things were created by Him and for Him, when I hear folks in the Christian populace voicing that they can't be cremated because they need (or God needs) a body to work with for them to be resurrected, WOW!!

See? I told you it was eye-brow raising worthy!

• They believe He hears them when they pray. ("And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." 1 John 5:15)

• They believe He always answers their prayers, in His perfect timing, and in whatever fashion He deems to be the absolute best way for them. ("There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." Ecclesiastes 3:1)

• They believe He knew them before they were born. ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;" Jeremiah 1:5)

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• They believe He created the first man from dust ("And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7)

And yet, I'm hearing from Christians that God is limited and can't work with cremated remains. Ashes. Hmm... 

The Jesus Christ I know, isn't limited by anyone or anything.

I never write that I create anything. I only make things. To create, the accurate definition of the word is "to make something from nothing."

Only God can do that and from the beginning, ashes have never presented a challenge for Him to work with. 

I hope this takes some of the angst out of decision making for some folks, who have a generationally fostered fear or abhorrence to cremation as a means of final disposition. 

If finances are tight, cremation is often an excellent solution to still having a beautiful service without draining your bank account. 

Just to help spread the word a bit further, it's easily done to have a funeral (body, casket, flowers, visitation, magnificent music selections by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir) and still be cremated. You have options and I'll write it once again, knowledge is power.

The wrap!

Below are a couple links to interesting posts recently circulating through the indie biz community that I hope you'll click on and hop over and have a look at. Both provide some seriously good information and the writers will sincerely appreciate your interest in their work.

• Get Your Share of the World Wide Web via WarnerWords
  

• The Gift of Life in Death via marcoujor's musings

That's it for this one!

God bless you, thanks for the read and hope to see you back again next week!

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