What Greater Love?

Hello, there you are! Couldn't resist sharing this poem I just found. I thought it's very timely as everyone might have been busy traveling to go to the cemetery to visit graves in memory of departed loved ones.

I Am Not Here

Don’t stand by my grave and weep,
For I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint of snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn’s rain.
When you awaken in the morning, hush.
For I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circle flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand by my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die. (Hopi Grief Song/Prayer)

Beautiful, isn't it? 

This past week until today, it's been Happy Halloween greetings I read and spooky scary images and photos I see in my FB newsfeed. Well, my family has never celebrated Halloween. My kids have never joined any Trick or Treat. Neither have they any of those Halloween costumes. As a kid, though, aside from bringing flowers, lighting candles and offering prayers in the cemetery, I remember my grandmother cooking rice cake and my father would also buy Kalamay Hati and Bayebaye (native delicacies), in celebration of the All Saints / Souls Day tradition. 

I saw these photos posted by hubby (he has been posting his best photos via Instagram) in his FB wall and Google+. These two photos were taken in a cemetery near the Matisse Museum that he visited in Nice, France.

Tomb of French painter, Henri Matisse

"What love is this that can't let go?"
Another photo he took in the same cemetery

Simple, yet beautiful! Looking at these two photos caused me to ponder on some verses about life after death and so I write---

                            Once I was dead (spiritually, that is) because of the sinfulness of sin, 

                            but what great love was it that caused a mighty God to lay 

                            down his life for me? A love far greater than the woman's love of her 

                            husband who lies lifeless underneath the tomb!

                            Yes, dead in sin, I was, but made alive in Christ. 

                            For God chose to die on the Cross and rise again, 

                            that He may raise me up to live with Him. 

                           Such is our God, rich in mercy and grace, in that even when 

                           I was dead in my sin, by grace, He saved me and made me live.

                           To the death He died at the Cross He succumbed, once and for all, 

                            that I may live with Him!

"Do not stand by my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die."