Parson to Person - Decoration Day

Evidence of the upcoming holiday, Memorial Day, is all over: flowers and wreaths are seemingly in every store. Yesterday, I observed a shopper?s cart almost overflowing with bouquets destined for the graves of loved ones ? to decorate the graves of family members.

Decorate ? Decoration Day ? that is what my grandmother called Memorial Day. My growing up family was a small one only my grandmother, mother and I; so there was only one grave in our family.

There was, though, quite a ritual in our household as Decoration Day approached. We cleaned and repainted the heavy, cast-iron urn at the cemetery, selected of the requisite plants, arranged the plants in the shiny, refurbished urn and lugged water from a distant tap. I remember that during this extended Decoration Day ritual that stories were shared about the lives of our loved ones ? those dead and living. We recalled the old and we made new memories.

I moved away from my home in Western Pennsylvania after I married; and, participation in the family ritual became impossible. So, I have adopted my own Decoration Day ritual.

Instead of decorating the gravestone, I ?decorate? my life with the lessons and the love that have been handed down to me. A few examples: I remember stories of my grandfather who even though he was exhausted from work made time to pay loving attention to his youngest daughter, my mother, who was absolutely smitten with him. I remember my grandmother who was the head cook of a junior high school. Grammy thought hamburgers were junk but she realized that the kids loved them. Grammy agreed to serve hamburgers only when she made and baked hamburger buns from scratch. (This involved getting up at 4:30 in the morning in order to have hamburger buns for 600 students and staff ready by noontime.) I remember my mother who literally lived her life for me and believed in me. Mom told me, ?There is nothing that you cannot do when you put your mind to it.? I remember my husband, Ted?s, willingness to follow God?s call regardless of the personal cost.

On Decoration Day, I allow these stories and memories to come into my mind and the memories of these peoples? lives to teach and to influence my life. I adorn my life with their virtues. I gratefully accept their legacy and resolve to do all that I can to pass those bequests on to others.

There is another whose life and lessons I remember and whose legacy I have received that I try to decorate my life with every day not simply one day, and that life is Jesus?. The best that I can do, what we all can and should do, is remember and be changed by the life of Jesus and his sacrifice. ?When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.? (NLT ? John 14:20)