all saint's sunday

today is all saint's sunday.

saint in this phrase refers to all believers both alive and dead since the beginning.

in particular it is a day of remembrance for those who died in Christ and who impacted our life spiritually and in general.

service was different today, no sermon. it was a time of testimony if people wanted to get up and speak about people who had passed that loved the Lord and influenced them in some way.

it was very poignant and emotional today. there were of course stories of God's faithfulness, reminders that prayers have no expiration date, and of God's Providence with the people he places in our lives at different times.

it caused me to think about my great-aunt Juanita. she was my paternal grandmother's older sister, and a very important member of our family.

after my grandma's mother and half of her siblings died in a tornado in the 1930s that destroyed Tupelo, Aunt Juanita became mom to the other siblings left behind. my great grandpa liked alcohol when he wasn't busy working, and they lived in poverty on the opposite side of the tracks in our town.

when my great grandpa died, my grandma was 12, and they had no one to take care of her. My Aunt Juanita made sure she was protected and fed and clothed.

years later my grandma married my grandad, became a Christian, and Aunt Juanita also came to the Lord.

She took care of me when i was little, while my parents worked. She had lots of wisdom, loved the Lord dearly despite her very difficult life, and lived for her family.

we would drink coffee (mine more milk and sugar than anything), watch both sesame street and soap operas, and read cookbooks.

She died when I was in 4th grade.

I often wonder what she would think about me now. I'm sure she'd be quite proud, when she wasn't worrying about me.

I know she prayed about me, and it hit me today that I am probably still living on all of those prayers.

in my opinion, prayers have no time constraint. prayers for my protection are being applied to my life now.

Thomas said something today that when we take communion, the table is not just what we see. it extends back to the night of the last supper.

Communion supernaturally unifies us to the table of God for all time. That cloud of witnesses is very much present.