Real hope

What makes a beautiful funeral? Is it all the flowers or nice funeral home, or is it the nice trimed cemetary with shaded seating. We had none of those. Or is it the testimony and hope in Christ shining bright in the family and the lost one. How many pastors see 20+ people come to a saving knowledge of Christ during their own child's funeral, with more than half while they preached? How many limit it to a few words rather than preach 5x to different crowds even late into the night? I can say without a doubt it is not the niceities surrounding a funeral that make it beautiful. It is the "way" that makes is beautiful, the hope of the family. The preaching of this same salvation to the neigbors that makes it so. Friends carrying the casket and lower it into the grave they labored hard all night to dig. Only to hear a grieving mother whisper "may I see her one last time?"... And without hesitation the men jump into the grave and lift the casket and hold it over their heads to allow a mother one last glimps of the body that housed their daughter and read the open bible on her. Watching our girls give cold water to 200+ brethren in sweltering heat. And seeing a grieving father comfort everyone else in his time of mourning... Yes a christian funeral is a beautiful thing to behold... because of hope.