(One of many processing writings for my friend’s passing and her services)

I was confused because I could not find on the web any reason why there might be a tradition, and I’m saying ‘might‘, that you have to have new shoes worn in the casket for the friend, who is being buried today. Trust me I didn’t see her shoes, I focused on her face, her hands. I don’t know if anyone cares about these shoes. I don’t even think she needs shoes. But they did prepare her so nice. She did look absolutely beautiful and happy, with the smile on her face like I would want to remember her, as they laid her body to rest. And trust me, after her standing on neuropathy feet for a long time, she would be happy to rest. (and where did the people who brought flowers put them? all on top of her shoes anyway.)

Good shoes is what we need today for an all day event, her mass as well as interment, as well as meal after. Good shoes but also probably boots, as the snow is not going anywhere, except into slush. Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had plywood down for the family to walk on, but like one year for my aunt’s outdoor funeral upstate in 15 degrees winter, you need good shoes. 

Good shoes because we are camping girl scout moms honoring one of our own. Good camp shoes which are not new but have been through the trenches. Good shoes that you don’t mind getting wet, muddy, stuck, because camping, like life in the world is temporary. 

Yeah, wear Good Shoes for walking this world.

Maybe that’s the reason for new shoes (or even no shoes) in a casket. Cause you don’t need any of those old shoes in Heaven. Because you’ve already been through those trenches and there are NO trenches in Heaven. There are no potholes or tricky indoor carpets to trip you either. It’s got to be a smooth sailing stride… Ah… Heaven. 

Heaven. Whose coming with me? I’m in no rush but can’t wait to get there, especially to hug my friend in renewed robustness, healed and whole. She took Jesus’s Hand, and we all do have our tickets punched for His Full-Service ride to Heaven. We just want to be ready to accept His forgiveness for earthly mud on our shoes. He does. 

But really, with no slight to tradition, do we need shoes? NAH… Jesus provides all the clean garments we need, and besides, Jesus’s FACE is focusing on looking at your FACE (and seeing you looking at Him): FACE TO FACE. 

Amen

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1st Corinthians 3:16,17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? … For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

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If I speak in the tongues a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see FACE to FACE. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

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Genesis 32:23-32

After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.