Flowers On Your Grave - Pretty but it's Sill A Grave

Jesus said to the crowds:                                                               

"Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day."

Sooner or later we all have an appointment that cannot be put off or delayed.  One day you will inhale while lying on your death bed and then you will exhale and be standing before God. You will see your life in great detail and you will mourn the times when you walked your own way and did not follow the Lord's way. You will rejoice when you see yourself being an ambassador for Christ and the real identity of the people you helped will be revealed, it will have been Christ. Your fate will then be decided and you will receive your wages for the life you lived. 

Some of us will immediately enter heaven where our joy at seeing God will complete us and we will be whole creatures fully devoted to loving God.  Those of us who never considered God a friend will weep and mourn and our anger will well up inside and we will turn our face from God and trudge to the place where we will not have to see Him.  These first two classifications have been paid in full.  But, what about those of us who have loved God but have sins that we have collected as if they were pearls of great price.  Sins where we have failed to forgive.  Sins where we have favored our will over God's in some matter yet, we were more or less turned toward God in our lives and only minor blemishes remain. We will go to Purgatory willingly because we know that we are not ready yet to see the Glory of God in heaven.  We know that the preferences we have retained need to be changed and God will allow us to prepare ourselves, to dress for the occasion so to speak, and when ready, we will join the saints in heaven.  Until that time we will purge ourselves of all that is incompatible with God and His glory.  We will suffer in purgatory, but we will have the assurance that we cannot sin against God anymore and that we will behold Him in all of His glory when our souls have been made ready. 

We cannot escape from death but we must use the time between now and the day when the bell will sound and God's angel will come for us, to do good, to obey God, and to love Him through those around us.  We will be doing ourselves a favor if we forgive willingly, forego vengeance, and love others as God has shown He loves us.  How much is that?  Just look at the Cross. 

On this All Souls Day please remember to pray for those that you know who have died.  Regardless of what is said at the funeral, not everyone goes directly to heaven. Many of us will choose purgatory because we will be infused with the knowledge that we are not ready to see God as He is.  We will want the time to purge ourselves of what keeps us from being so shy with our creator.  God wants us to see Him as He truly is and we can only do that if we are holy and without the stain of sin on our souls.  So, pray for them today on this All Souls Day.  Remember, later today, or tomorrow, or at some time in the future, you may be there yourself.