God is a God of the Living

Several years ago a young couple called me frantically a few days before Christmas. Their infant daughter had died mysteriously and they were heart broken. They wanted her burial service on Christmas Eve. We had five Christmas Eve Services scheduled at our church that evening starting at 4:00. We decided that 2:00 would work.

Without a doubt, this was the saddest funeral I had ever done. Christmas Eve is the time we celebrate the life of a baby born in a manger not the death of a tiny little girl whose name was “Angel”. After visiting with the mother and dad, I fretted and worried about what in the world would I say. For a pastor who had five Christmas Eve Services to prepare for, the task of writing a funeral service for an infant on Christmas Eve seemed almost insurmountable. Angel had a little brother who was two years old. What do you say to a little boy who doesn’t know about death? What do you say to a mother who carried Angel in her womb for nine months and who cared for this little life? What do you say to a father who isn’t sure he believes in Jesus?

I spent time in Angel’s home trying to bring comfort to this family. I didn’t know the words to say so I listened as they talked about how special this little life was. We cried together, read scripture and talked about how one day we would see Angel in heaven.

On the day of Angel’s funeral, Luke 20:38 came to me and in the midst of tears I was able to share “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him we are all alive.” We celebrated that night with five wonderful services praising God for the gift of His one and only Son. We had hundreds and hundreds of people in the church that sang “Away in The Manger” and “Joy to The World” but that afternoon we came to a deeper understanding of who God is. “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him we are all alive.”

May your Christmas 2021 be a time of celebrating the baby in the manger but may it also be a time to realize that “God is not the God of the dead, but the living, for to Him we are all alive.” May this Christmas be filled with a deeper understanding of who God is and may we be reminded Jesus came to die for our sins so we can live with Him for eternity.

Author: Tommy Herndon