And with all the saints that have gone before us...

Today is All Saints Sunday - a day devoted to the remembrance of those who have passed away this year. Though anyone who has ever lost someone close to them will tell you that the memories are always there, this day in particular honors their memory in the church as well...their spiritual memories.

The children's sermon in church today caught my interest - our pastor talked about how all of us are saints, not just those who are gone from this earth, and not just those "really really special people" in our lives, but all of us. He illustrated this idea by showing how different items are made holy because God is present in them, such as ordinary bread and wine made holy by consecrating them, and an ordinary book compared to the Holy Bible, because the Bible contains the word of God. My mind flashed back to one of those e-mail forwards that went around a few times called "it depends on whose hands it's in." The premise of the whole thing was that any object would be worth substantially more if it were placed in the hands of someone who was an expert or professional with that object. It's the same idea, although there is a definite spiritual bent on the things outlined in the sermon. Anyone can be in posession of those holy objects, and still they remain holy, becuase their worth comes from something beyond our own human reach.

The memory of those lost, whether good or bad, can create a multitude of emotions. We can feel sorrow, anger, pain, happiness at the good times, regret for the bad. The chain of emotion doesn't stop at the person who lost a loved one, however. It carries on to those who know each of those people - and it can often hurt almost as much to see those friends and family members grieving over their losses as it hurts them to have lost someone. It is almost mind blowing how many people can be affected by a single loss of life. All life is precious, and there is a sort of morbid mystique that surrounds death - because it is something that is so permanent, so irreversible, and so uncontrollable in our human hands.

Kinda rough, take from it what you will.