Today's Daily Lesson comes from the Prayer for All Faithful Departed on this All Souls Day:
Almighty God . . .
Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love.
Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting.
There is a subtle, yet very soothing word in the portion of the Prayer for All Faithful Departed which petitions for the bereaved; the word is "reasonable".
There is a "reasonable" hope we can have in times loss.
There is the reasonable hope of resurrection in the age to come -- a hope we have reason to have in the gift of eternal life, having first been surprised (astounded) by the gift and gifts of this life.
And there is also the reasonable hope we have for happiness in this still mortal age -- not a happiness perfected, for with so many or even with only one whom we deeply love now departed, how can we have perfect happiness? Yet we can hope to be reasonably happy in this life, and sublimely so also in the next.
These are days for remembering now -- especially for remembering those departed in the past year. The wound is still fresh. The grief raw. The loss painful. As the days grow darker and the holidays near, it may get even more difficult. It is understandable if you are afraid.
Yet there is reason to hope. We know the days will grow longer again. We remember we will light the candle of hope to get through the darkest days. Emmanuel, God will come and be near in the longest nights. A light will arise.
There is reason to hope, dear ones. Life found us. New life can find us also. And happy will be those who mourn.
And reasonably so will be enough to see us through . . .
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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