BY FAITH...KEN GAVE COMMANDMENT CONCERNING HIS BONES

Memorizing Hebrews 11 has netted far more in the way of blessing than I ever anticipated. You would think that 55 years of significant exposure to the passage would have just about drained it of new lessons. Ah, but we all know that the Word of God is a deep well of water, and those who let down the bucket always get fresh water. I will be writing several pages on the riches of that 11th chapter as seen through the eyes of someone who is in a new stage of life...first I was single and living at home; I left home to immediately set up house with my husband and there I stayed for 42 years; and now, I find myself walking down an unknown pathway...that of a widow.

Anyway, one of the worst parts about the almost two years of grieving since Ken "died in the Lord" has been the decision to have him cremated. Hot tears have been shed more than once wishing that I had laid him in a casket and lowered him into the ground...from dust to dust. Being honest, I've been battered much like a tiny skipper on the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean. Visions of him lyning serenely in a coffin, his hands folded upon his chest, and "going the way of all flesh" beneath the ground have darted in and out of my mind on and off, especially in the first year. Those thoughts have waned but not completely.

That was until Hebrews 11. I worked hard at memorizing it, glad to have a few of the verses already committed to memory, a result of Awana and Sunday School and my mom's before-school memorization routine. Many, many things began to bless me. I'd be quoting away in my car and something would hit me and I'd stop, unable to go on until I contemplated what I had just quoted. That is exactly what happened to me on the subject of the cremation of Ken Heldman!

The chapter goes through Abel and Enoch, Abraham and Sarah, and then Isaac, Jacob, Esau and Joseph. Having gotten to a point where I could whiz through the chapter pretty handily, it was now becoming more of a feat than a blessing. The verse about Joseph was at the bottom of the page and mentally, I was about to turn that page and go on to Moses when a quiet thought dawned. "By faith," it says, "Joseph made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones."

Now, up until that moment, this had impressed me as an argument against cremation. I should have put Ken's body in the ground so that his bones would be intact...or something like that. But on this day, something new was taught to me and it was this: "By faith, Ken Heldman gave commandment concerning his bones."

In the most real sense of the word, Ken had indeed, by faith, given commandment concerning his bones. He was adamant whenever we discussed this. "I want to be cremated. It is foolish to spend so much money on a death when I will not care anymore. I will be with Christ!"

Truly, Ken's faith was amazingly strong on the subject of "absent from the body, present with the Lord," and when he "gave commandment concerning his bones," it was with the same faith as Joseph's. Joseph knew God was going to keep His promise and that the children of Israel would really leave Egypt. "Take my bones with you when you go," he said...by faith.

When Ken verbalized his wishes concerning cremation vs. burial, it was because in the truest sense of the word, he knew he would be with Christ. "Ken Heldman gave commandment concerning his bones...by faith."

By faith, I have peace on the subject for the first time.

July 19, 2008                                                                                                    Go to August 12