Western Echo Newspaper Article

Funeral to Celebration

What happened when a widow who was burying her only son meets Jesus on the way to the grave? Christ had compassion on her, touched the coffin and raised her son from the dead. Her funeral was turned into celebration. But what does that mean for you?

Does your life feel like a funeral? Are you weeping on the inside not just because you’re hurting but because you are so afraid? I know that feeling. As a boy I hid under the blankets of my bed trying not to hear my mum and dad yelling at each other. I sat on my father’s knee as he told me he was leaving and was never coming back. Up until then I had lived within the ever escalating tension of a couple who had come to hate each other. But on my Dad’s knee God shattered my world completely. I stopped living, I stopped hoping.

My most present emotions were incredible loneliness and white rage. I turned my back on God, I hated him for taking my dad out of my life. So I fled into the arms of whatever would destroy me, drugs, alcohol, violence. My only dream was to take my own life.

In the funeral that was my life Jesus was never far. He pursued me and kept me in his tight embrace. I know this now but I didn’t then. Jesus touched me as he did the widow’s son. He made me breathe again, hope was kindled like the flame of a candle.

Christ surrounded me with people who had also been touched by Jesus, whose funeral had been changed to celebration. And so I grew in hope, love, joy and peace. Loneliness was replaced by Christ himself.

Christ transformed the widow’s funeral into a celebration. I share her story. May Christ turn your funeral into celebration.             

Listen to or watch my message on this theme @ www.godsgap.net/celebration

the Rev (Chris Perona)

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