Things placed inside caskets

People want the strangest things placed in their coffins. A friend of mine, a veritable chain smoker, wanted a carton of cigarettes put inside his. He couldn’t envision entering the hereafter without a supply of cigarettes. He said, “If I came by his grave and saw smoke rising, he would be taking a smoke.” Ironically, smoking almost caused his death. After smoking for 50 years, he suffered a serious heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. Since then, he has sworn off cigarettes and wouldn’t dare smoke one.

Another friend’s grandfather passed, and I went to the funeral. During the graveside service, the casket was opened for family members to view one last time. I noticed one lady approaching the casket with a sack. She pulled two items out and placed them beside the deceased. Later I asked my friend what his aunt put inside the casket. He said, “My granddaddy requested that a hammer and chisel be placed in his casket so he could break out if he had to.”

Even the ancient pharaohs bedecked their pyramid tombs with prized possessions they desired to take with them to the great beyond. Being a great believer in the power of the cross, I placed a miniature cross in the clothing of both my mother and father. Intrigued with angels, Beverly and I had the funeral director attach an angel pin to her mother’s dress.

Since deceased persons can take nothing with them, such eccentricities serve to ease the finality of death. The corpse you see in a coffin is nothing more than the earthly temple that once housed the deceased’s soul. The soul vacates the dying body much like an electric current departs an incandescent bulb when it blows, leaving behind burned out filament encased in glass. The soul-less human body leaves behind nothing more than decaying rubble.

The soul goes to God immediately at death, much like the penitent thief’s soul to whom Jesus promised an immediate reunion, declaring, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” I Corinthians 14 speaks of a bodily resurrection. How then will the dead rise? The Scripture states that the resurrection body will become a supernatural spiritual body that transcends physical laws. Although the Scripture is not specific as to how the departed soul reunites with the resurrection body, the Scriptures leave us with this glorious hope: “The dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

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