Elder Wisdom by Keith

Years ago, curiosity led me to read (a translation of) the Egyptian’s “Book of the Dead”, the collection of ancient writings that described the Egyptians’ understanding of life, death and their cosmology.  I really struggled to understand how that stuff could mean anything to them- they wrote as if the dead were always around them, in or another states of non-life, but not non-existence.  Of course it is hard for us to wrap our minds around today, trained as we are in a cultural understanding (thanks to thinkers like David Hume) of the difference between real and unreal, actual and imagined.

The Bible, written centuries after the Egyptian myths, doesn’t go into a lot of explanation about the topic.  Sure, there are a couple of patriarchs, like Elijah, taken straight up into heaven, and also a couple of others encountering the disciples during the Transfiguration.  And then, there is the verse that preachers have struggled over what to do with for millenia- Matthew 27:52.  (If I ever get to do the Sunday School series, “Least Loved Stories From the Bible”, that verse will be one of the lessons).

I think, after the last 18 months, having lost my brother and mother, I am better equipped to understand what the ancients were trying to express.  My daughter has helped too- she was in a performance of “The Secret Garden”, and that show handled the theme of people dealing with loved ones that are gone physically, but whose presence is still felt.

This is a long and roundabout way of getting to: when we bury the bodies of our loved ones that pass, we don’t have to also bury their memories and even presence in our lives.  Yes, their lives on Earth are ended, but that does nothing to affect the reality of feelings we have for them, or even really the feelings they held of us, earlier.

Those emotions and interactions were real, and so are still real.  The impacts they had on us, in forming us into who we are now, are all still very real, and can even echo and ripple onward, through our interactions with others.

I feel as if it is ok still to talk with my brother and my mother.  We have enough history together for me to imagine their responses and views about the things going on in my life.  I don’t think this is exactly what is meant by “the life everlasting” of the old creeds, but it will do as a facet, until we all get there.

Grace and peace be with you.