A Day To Remember

So what's your 7-7-07 story? Over 38,000 weddings were conducted on that day....were they in search of good luck or was it a way to readily remember anniversaries for the future? Some women chose to have C-sections on that day to insure their newborn would have a unique birthday tale. As for me, I conducted a funeral for a 31 year old man who has been in prison for 10 years and who hung himself. He had been sent to prison for murder....of his wife...who had been living with another guy while her husband was in prison for another charge. The wife's boyfriend had molested the wife's young daughter so when her husband was released, he killed her in revenge. (This is true, I assure you). So when I get to the funeral home (I had promised the funeral director ...whom I had confirmed when he was a kid...that I would help him out if he got stuck with situation where family had no one to turn to), there was the mother of the deceased, a stepfather, and a daughter whom I'm convinced was "stoned" - her body covered by 20+ tatoos - the husband of the daughter and the mother of the daughter's husband. That was it - no one else. I had arrived at noon - the funeral was to be at 1 p.m. - but the family didn't want to wait that long. So we began the service at 12:30 after calling the cemetery to see if they were ready. After the service was over, it was hard to draw the mother away from the casket. She wanted to stroke her son's arm since she hadn't touch him in 10 years. The sister wanted to hear a rap song played before she left the casket - sorry, I didn't recognize the song. Then at the cemetery, after smoking during the commital service, the daughter hauled out a roman candle....much to my surprise and fear. Would she point it in the right direction. She did....and after the numerous explosions, the whole episode ended. When driving back with the funeral director, I asked, "OK....you have been involved in a lot of situations and have seen a lot of strange situations - where does this experience rank? "Number one", was his response. We both agreed we will have a special memory regarding 7-7-07.
So what message did I seek to convey. I used the words of the thief on the cross...."remember me when you come into your kingdom." It was a statement made in hope. And hope is all we had to go on in this situation......hope in a God who is all merciful and loving....who knew this young man, even if the rest of us were totally dumbfounded by the details of his life.
Since I have never taken upon myself the task of judging a person's eternal future and have always left that to God, I could only hope that somehow and in someway the mother of this young man was comforted in her grief and that the daughter might choose some other alternatives in her life than what she seemed to be choosing at the present moment. But apart from my confidence in God's word, I was truly at a loss for words. It was a humbling experience to say the least.....and one I will never forget....especially since I was aided by the coincidence of month, day and year.