Baptist Spirituality

In honor of Becky Wilson’s interment, Eastertide 2013

They say, “From ashes to ashes,”
I don’t know why.  For sympathy I suppose.
It sounds scriptural, yet
It all seems so fatalistic to me.
Perhaps it’s the “from” part I don’t like.

We are always on the go
From one place to another.

I like emphasizing the “to” instead.
From death to life.
From faith to faith.
From glory to glory.
(Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.)

We are consumed by the goings on from one place to another
Somewhere between here and nowhere,
Or anywhere for that matter.

But it’s the destination that counts rather than the journey.
I lived my journey, and now I am finished.

Now its rest.
Rest in God’s presence.
Rest beside still waters.
Rest at a great banquet set before me.
(My cup overflows.)

So don’t go around saying,
“From Ashes to ashes” for my (or your) sake.
Makes no difference to me.

Instead, say that I lived life and lived it well.
Say that
I still live even now
Someplace where the “from”
No longer counts.

Ms. Rebecca Sue Wilson died on January 18, 2013.
She was a founding member of Trinity Baptist Church, Conyers, Georgia.