Recently I was reading some posts on one of the Internet email lists, and the discussion turned to spiritual songs that deal with death. Of course, there are many ways in which we deal with our emotional connections with death. Weeping. Singing. Meditation. Each of these has its place in our grieving process.
One of the ways Christians cope with the realities of death is summed in the words of Paul, who wrote,
"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
The point is not that we do not grieve, but that we do not grieve as the rest. Some grieve in hopelessness; others grieve in hope.
Whether we grieve in hope or hopelessness is dependent upon one factor, as Paul continued,
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
Frankly, there are some whose passing I mourn as those who have no hope, for I know the kind of life they have lived and the wasted opportunities for serving God they have allowed to pass. This is what I feel when I am called upon to assist a grieving family upon the death of a family member who has lived-and died-outside of saving grace.
However for others, some of whom I have laid in the ground during our short time in San Bernardino, I have the highest sense of joy and gratitude for the character and ongoing testimony of their lives, even as Revelation 14:13 declares: "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." Death can be beautiful.
On her album, "Sweet Rivers" Jean Ritchie sings a song that seems appropriate at this point in our study. One verse of the song is given below:
I came to the place where the white pilgrim lay,
And pensively stood by his tomb.
When in a low whisper I heard something say,
"How sweetly I sleep here alone."
Of the origins of the song, she says, "This is a very well-known and popular hymn in our region [the mountains of Kentucky]. I used to think that the patriarch and founder of the Little Zion Church, Uncle Ira Combs, with his flowing snow-white hair and beard, was the original White Pilgrim, but he assured me that the White Pilgrim had gone a long time before and that he was only following in the Pilgrim's footsteps."
Don’t misunderstand the meaning of whiteness in the song. It has nothing to do with race or gray hair, nor does it have anything to do with Plymouth Rock or painted church buildings. It’s a way of living, "walking in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7).
May God help us all to walk in the steps of the white pilgrim so that ours will be a joyful death.
