I find it interesting that there are no specified instructions for how to hold a funeral service in scripture. There isn’t anything teaching us that we must have one, nor even any direct instructions as to what to do with the body. Yet God teaches us that there is something very special about death, especially the deaths of those who die having been faithful to Him: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones. Psalm 116:15 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!”. “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” We also typically care a great deal about the deaths of those we love. Entire industries have arisen and become very profitable whose only reason for existing is to provide care for those who’ve died. It must be said, however, that the handling of the remains of our loved ones is not really for them, but ourselves, that in this investment we show for the “last time” our concern for them. Someone has even well said: Half the hurts of the world could be healed if people only would lavish on the living the tenderness they feel for the dead. How true! Hardly anything is more touching in all of the Bible than the courage and tenderness of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus when they hazarded their lives in coming for the body of Jesus, John 19:38-42. Using linen, and having on hand plenty of myrrh and aloes, they wrapped His body and laid it in Joseph’s own burial place, Matthew 27:59-60. Solomon said through inspiration almost 3,000 years ago: … the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart. Funerals are not for the dead, but the living. Our tie to those who’ve died, or even to the loved ones of the deceased, compels us to recognize the importance of the loss and to “pay our respect” for the dead and our concern for the living. I encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities as you can for the sake of the memory of the dead, the comfort and encouragement of their families and to renew your own realization that you will not be here forever.