Death, Taxes and Tea Parties

Yesterday I attended the funeral of my dearly beloved aunt, filed income taxes, and watched the evening news showing protesters pretending to pitch tea into rivers across the country.

There’s something about standing next to a coffin at a cemetery that brings life’s priorities into focus.

There’s something about paying taxes that emphasizes the futility of a life dedicated to making money.

And there was something about seeing the protesters hauling boxes marked "TEA" to the bows of their boats that made me realize that when Mom, my sisters and I returned from the funeral we should have taken time to have a good old-fashioned tea party complete with pretty teacups and delicate cookies.

My mom’s mom lived a most humble life. By worldly standards, she was poor. She probably never had enough money to GET to pay taxes. But she knew how to put on a tea party that would make a fairy tale princess swoon. At her table we were royalty and unconditionally loved. At her table, we learned that her riches were treasures stored up in heaven.

A beautiful scripture, Romans 8:38-39 NASB, shared at my aunt’s funeral bolstered us with a promise that helped us rejoice in the midst of our grief: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

. . . nor funerals, nor taxes, nor social injustice . . .

Gathering for a funeral tends to make us look back on what used to be. The promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ helps us look forward to all that is to come -- starting now!

Cindy Gray