We make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Several weeks ago I participated in a memorial service for a dear older friend at our church, Boyd.  Boyd was a stalwart member of a men’s small group that I have been a part of for several years.  We bonded even more deeply over our grief after he lost his wife several years ago and we lost Daniel.

The service for Boyd was beautiful as we celebrated his 86 years and his spirit of generosity and faithfulness. 

Though I have heard these words from the burial service in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer many times before, including at Daniel’s service, they jumped off the page at me as I read them again at Boyd’s service:

You only are immortal, the creator and maker of mankind; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth shall we return. For so did you ordain when you created me, saying, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

“Yet even at the grave, we make our song” –– we are able to sing and we can choose to sing – “alleluia, alleluia, alleluia”!

What amazing words and what an amazing invitation to make our song, even at the grave, a song of hope and a song of praise to God.

On days when I still miss Daniel with an intensity and yearning too deep for words, I cling to the hope that this can be my song, even at his grave, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

God:  give me grace to make this my song.