在一个美丽的春日,一小群心情沉重的人在墓园簇拥在一起,我们在那里聚集,来陪伴子女们安葬他们亲爱的母亲的骨灰。
我负责主领这个安葬仪式。我们都坦白承认,死亡带给我们的损失,实在是如此真实。我们诵读圣经,经文提醒我们,无论是生是死、是肉体是灵魂,我们都属于永活的救主,在祂里面,我们有永生的盼望;我们祷告,把这位母亲的灵魂交在神手中,又让她的骨灰归回那地的尘土中。
葬礼即将结束时,我邀请众人同唱“耶稣爱我。”我知道,这位母亲有某种残障的那个女儿很喜欢唱这首歌。这个女孩带领我们一起唱,她的歌声响遍整个墓园、甚至在周围传播出去。真是美丽和令人难以忘怀啊!
她能够唱这首歌,甚至在她母亲的葬礼中也能够开声唱,是因为她知道所唱的是真的:“耶稣爱我!我知道,因有圣经告诉我 …。”
圣经真的这样告诉我们:“我爱你们,正如父爱我一样。”
我盼望你也认识耶稣的爱,并能够同唱这首歌 - 有一颗笃定和纯全的心,就像在墓园里那位蒙爱的女儿那样。
耶稣啊,你说过你爱我们。因为你爱我们,我们也照样爱你。求你感动我们,今天便为这个深奥的真理热切地献上感谢。阿们。
约翰福音 15:9-17
9“我爱你们,正如父爱我一样,你们要常在我的爱里。
10你们若遵守我的命令,就常在我的爱里,正如我遵守了我父的命令,常在他的爱里。
11这些事我已经对你们说了,是要叫我的喜乐存在你们心里,并叫你们的喜乐可以满足。
12你们要彼此相爱,像我爱你们一样,这就是我的命令。
13人为朋友舍命,人的爱心没有比这个大的。
14你们若遵行我所吩咐的,就是我的朋友了。
15以后我不再称你们为仆人,因仆人不知道主人所做的事。我乃称你们为朋友,因我从父所听见的,已经都告诉你们了。
16不是你们拣选了我,是我拣选了你们,并且分派你们去结果子,叫你们的果子常存,使你们奉我的名无论向父求什么,他就赐给你们。
17我这样吩咐你们,是要叫你们彼此相爱。
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." - John 15:9
A small, subdued group huddled together on a cemetery hillside on a lovely spring day. We had gathered to bury the cremains of a dear mother.
I led the brief committal service. We were honest about the very real loss that this death meant for us. We read Scripture passages reminding us of the living hope we have in the living Savior to whom we belong—body and soul, in life and in death. We said a prayer in which we committed the spirit of this mother to God and her ashes to this spot in the earth.
As we ended the service, I invited the group to sing a song that I knew the mother's daughter with special needs loved to sing: "Jesus Loves Me." It was beautiful, unforgettable! As the daughter led us in the singing, her voice sounded out across the cemetery and into the wide spaces beyond.
She could sing this song, even here at her mother's burial, because she knew its truth: "Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so. . . ."
The Bible does tell us so. Jesus himself said so: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you."
I hope you know Jesus' love and can sing this song too—with a heart as confident and full as that dearly loved daughter had on that cemetery hillside.
Jesus, you love us. You said so. Because you do, we love you too. Move us to warmhearted thanks today for this profound truth. Amen.
诵读: 骆云秀
片头: 张妙阳