A Happily Ever After… (from Pastor Ray)

[Ray Newell is pastor of City Road Chapel, UMC in Madison (Nashville area) TN. Please Join us for worship service. We have a small, early church service at 8:00a.m. on Sunday, Sunday School at 8:45, and another worship at 11:00. All are welcome. (Map) (Visit our Website)]

A couple in the church recently sent us a card with a clipping inside about someone’s hoping they’d see their beloved pets again in heaven.  On the card, they noted how many dogs they had buried in their yard over the many decades they had lived in their house.  I remembered how many parsonages I’d lived in that had pet cemeteries out back.  Little plots, often with little crosses, which contained various dogs, cats, hamsters, and other pets of ministers and their families.  One of the sad parts of moving for me has been to go off and leave the remains of these faithful members of our family.  It feels somehow like we’re leaving part of ourselves behind as we move off to a new parish.  Our time at City Road has been hard on our pets.  While we’ve been here, we’ve lost three old dogs—two of the kid’s pets and Joan’s special Maggie—and one old cat—the only other one in our family besides me who had blue eyes.  One reason Joan and I hope we can keep our house is because we’re tired of going off and leaving behind those we love.

Then last week, as I read my latest issue of Gun Dog Magazine, I came across this:  “The story of a loved dog’s life almost never has a happy ending. They get cancer, they get hit by cars, …or they get so old that their systems fail and our veterinarians put them to sleep.  When those things happen, we beat ourselves up about it; all the things we should have done while they were in our care.”  How true this is for all beloved pets. Then I realized its deeper truth is about all those we love.

All of our love stories have sad endings.  In the flush of love and youth we don’t realize what it means when we vow, “until death us do part.”  One of us will die first, and the other will know the terrible pain of the loss of a spouse.  We will die and our children and friends will experience that vast void in their lives caused by our absence.  Most horribly, we might have to bury a child we have raised and poured our love into.  Other types of losses of those whom we have loved will sadden our lives, and often we will beat ourselves up about all we feel we should have done while they were with us.  The sadness will come because we have loved.  If one doesn’t know love, one can’t mourn the loss of love.  The level of our grief is in direct proportion to the depth of our love.

In human terms, all of our love stories will have unhappy endings; but God tells us that ultimately we who have loved and been loved in Christ will know a final happy ending.  To the world, Jesus’ life ends horribly.  All that love he gave in his words and deeds of power was answered with denial, betrayal, torture, and crucifixion.  His ultimate love seemed to lead only to the unhappiest of endings.  But God intervenes with Easter morning, declaring those whose love story involves Jesus the Christ—no matter how much conflict, confusion, pain and sadness that story has—ultimately ends, “and they lived happily ever after!”  I see in Easter the promise that we never leave our loves behind; they wait for us up ahead.

Ray