The Headstones Will Cry Out When The Christmas Entertainers Don’t
As the culture gets darker, the light of Christianity shines ever brighter, proclaiming the truth of the gospel, and calling people to their Savior.
Shortly before closing Ad Crucem for our Christmas–New Year break, we attended an annual Christmas extravaganza in a nearby city. We had been to it often before, and there had always been a few Christmas carols interspersed with secular jingles. But, this time, there was just the secular fluff, and no mention of the real hope of Christmas.
The injunction to “believe” has been turned into the belief in a mythical fat guy sliding down the chimney dragging a bag of gifts, or the elf on the shelf snitching about badly behaved kids. The lyrics of the songs have been altered so that, instead of praising the Lord who humbled Himself to take on human flesh for the redemption of mankind, the venue got the mention and the praise. The people have no fear of God anymore, when, like Herod they think they can take His glory and make it their own (Acts 12). We fear for the future of a society devoid of the one true faith.
A couple of days after our return home we were contacted by Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller about a parishioner, Ray Thoresen, who was nearing death. He had been a faithful member of the church his entire life – baptized at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Austin Texas, in 1933, confirmed there in 1946, and married to Joyce in 1960. A beautiful life in Christ for more than nine decades, at the same church! A life we can but admire as immigrants and converts with shallow roots.
In anticipation of an imminent funeral, the family urgently needed a Luther Rose that could cover a Masonic symbol on the family tombstone from a century ago, placed by Ray’s grandparents. The family instead wanted to proclaim the hope of the resurrection rather than a previous generation’s association with the Masons
Tim got to work designing two temporary Luther Roses, one side has the Solas in English, and the other has them in Latin: Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Scripture Alone. The temporary roses are laser cut cherry wood. More permanent ones will be made out of brass when the family is ready for the change.
This is the second headstone project Ad Crucem has contributed to, the other being the tragic death of an infant, but whose parents hold tightly to their Christian faith. Those parents are a wonderful reminder that Christians should eschew cremation and honor the hope of the resurrection with a Christian funeral and burial. We are always ready to help with appropriate symbols and inscription ideas for headstones.
The Thoresen project helped us to recover from the vacuous Christmas extravaganza and remember the true hope of Christmas. We do not just hope in the birth of this Special Child, we hope too in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. That hope extends beyond our own lives, to our deaths and the certain knowledge that Christ will raise us again to new life in Him – we will see Him with our own eyes!
When the Lord told Ahaz to ask of Him a sign as High as Heaven or as deep as Sheol (Isaiah 9), He was prophesying the markers of Christ’s life here on earth. The star the wise men saw was that heavenly sign, as were the angels proclaiming His birth from on high to the lowly shepherds. The deepest sign was Christ’s temporary death and interment in the hewn tomb, and His appearance in hell to the satanic hordes cemented His victory over sin, death, and the Devil. We wait with hope for that final victory over death, when we will rise rejoicing with Ray Thoresen and all the other saints who have gone before us and celebrate for eternity the God who has bought us with His shed blood
Such a beautiful confession of Christ this Christmastide. Thank you.