Today we celebrate the unity of God’s saints on earth and in heaven.
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying,
‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’
‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit,
‘that they may rest from their labors,
for their deeds follow them!'”
Revelation 14:13 English Standard Verison
This is not the first cemetery in which I’ve taken pictures but it is the oldest. In fact, it claims to be the first cemetery in Charleston (ca. 1695 which is only 139 years after Martin Luther’s death).
Circular Congregational Church Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina
Though some of these graves have been here for over 300 years, this is not the final resting place for those who have died in Christ. Too often we mistakenly call graves the final resting place. To do so we then must deny that the resurrection is real.
As many of you know, both my father and sister have died and joined the Church Triumphant. I know that one day their ashes will be raised from the dead.
Until then, there is a temporary rest for them from their labors: from pain and struggle, from sin and sorrow.
On this All Saints Day it is proper for us to celebrate the unity of the Church Militant (that’s you and me) and the Church Triumphant (those who have died in the Lord) in the mystery that is the Communion of Saints.
I thank God for my father who left a legacy of faith. I thank God for my sister who left a legacy of grace in a life lived with muscular dystrophy.
Think about those who have left a legacy for you and thank God for their testimony to Christ that lives on in your life.
“For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!”
Copyright Douglas P Brauner
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