Black Smoke

 

I had a creepy experience last week.  And, of course, I must pass it on to you to ruin your day.  Ha, ha!  I was driving down Battlefield Parkway when I saw black smoke billowing into the air.  Being the curious (nosy) man that I am, I followed it to the source: the cremation building behind the funeral home (to remain anonymous).  I have had several relatives’ and friends’ services at this particular funeral home, and it is a great, professional business with a cordial staff.  But still … it is just creepy to think of a body in the crematorium burning up.  I have relatives who plan on cremation when they pass away, but I just don’t want to think of THEM burning up.  Of course, they will be in heaven, but still … it’s creepy.  In the Bible, people were always buried.  But I don’t think that there is a mandate requiring burial, they just always buried folk in Bible times.  I like the idea of a burial plot where a headstone can reside to remind me of departed loved ones.  Again, an urn with someone’s ashes in it sitting around the house is a little creepy.  And scattering the ashes at a selected place is creepy too.  Like the lady who wanted her ashes scattered on the golf course so her husband would visit her occasionally.  Hey, immediately upon death, you will meet your Creator.  If you have accepted God’s free gift of salvation offered to you by Jesus Christ, you will be … II Corinthians 5:8, “… absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”  So, my final question is, “Are you ready to meet your Maker?”  Where will your soul be when you are becoming ‘black smoke’?  Will you be in the arms of the dear Lord … or not?