Laurels For The Living – Sunday, May 30, 1982
At first thought, Christ’s injunction to “…let the dead bury their dead,”1 seems somewhat harsh. It may appear especially insensitive at this time of year as Memorial Day bids us to remember departed relatives and friends.
It was not disrespect for the dead, but respect for the living, however, which prompted the Savior’s words—respect for the simple truth of life that service rendered is of little value to those we love if they are dead. Post-mortem love, kindness shown to those now absent is like the rain of September which arrives too late to save the withered crops from the drought of summer.
The love we offer to the dead—the eulogies, the wreaths, the epitaphs—does little to bless their lives. We remember then—as well we should—and remember with great fondness. But how much sweeter would be the memory if we had shared those thoughts more while yet they lived. We often withhold our encouragement and affection from the living, waiting for the right moment to express our love—waiting, procrastinating, busying ourselves with the irrelevancies of life—until at last, the moment is gone. The flower bouquet we had thought to carry to a friend must now be delivered as a wreath; the appreciation which may have comforted the aging parent or spouse will become part of the funeral eulogy; the undelivered expressions of love which could have been given to those we knew must now become the epitaphs on grave markers.
George William Childs kept these words as a creed to live by: “Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier by them.”2
Let us remember to love the living while there is time. Perhaps someone waits in a nursing home for a visit that we have been putting off. We may owe some unpaid debt of kindness to a friend, a former teacher, a sister or brother, a parent—debt which may remain unpaid unless we act now.
Soon the loveliest and the best that we have known will be beyond our reach and buried with them will be the opportunity to bless them with our love.
Let our eulogies be written upon the fleshy chambers of living hearts. Let our wreaths be gentle words and caresses placed about the necks of those who can still appreciate their fragrance.
It is for the dead to bury the dead—but it is for the living to love the living.
1 The New Testament, Matthew 8:22
2 George William Childs. “A Creed”, Familiar Quotations, Little, Brown and Company, page 577.
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May 30, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,754