WLSU, Love and Death - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

We Christians believe in eternal life. Yet we still manage so often to think and speak of those who have died in the past tense. But Jim is a poet. And though he wasn't reading a poem here, it takes a poet's heart to lay bare the beautiful forgotten truth in such simple terms. A man standing mere feet from the ashes of his friend's body and speaking of him in the present tense. The words for what I came to understand that day did now show up immediately. But now I have them. When someone dies we do not stop loving them. Our love is not past tense. And it's not just grief or nostalgia or sentimental memories. It is love in the present tense. It is love that still manages to shape us. We continue to be transformed by love after their death. And I believe I know why. Our loved ones who died are still loving us. They are in eternal life. Right now. They are alive in Christ - not as a metaphor, but as a bare fact. They are in the present tense. Their love is in the present tense. And so is ours. Our love remains. And when I say our love remains, I am not saying it remains as a stubborn insistence to hold onto what was. No, our love remains because it is alive and active and we continue to share it with the dead who live in the present tense. Want to support our podcast? Give Here https://redeemercincy.tpsdb.com/Give/podcast