Life at a Funeral

A friend of mine is an atheist. He says he doesn’t believe in God because he can’t see Him. I say he sees God more than he thinks he does. The evidence is all around us. We just need the eyes to see.

Let me give you a simple, yet profound, example. When my friend’s mother died, he remembers standing alone beside her casket and talking to her – just simple things, like how nice her hair looked and how deeply he loved her. Most of us can appreciate the sweetness of that moment: a son telling his mother goodbye. The question is why would an atheist grieve when someone dies?

Follow the logic: For atheists, the material universe is all there is. There is no spiritual dimension. No life after death. No greater meaning. Humans are nothing but biological machines. Love and grief don’t exist. They’re merely the result of chemicals in our brains that makes us feel like something profound is happening when it’s actually not.

Strictly speaking, from that point of view, the only reason my friend mourned was because a chemical factory had shut down. That’s all.

But deep in our souls we know that’s not all. A relationship doesn’t connect us to a biological machine, but a person. Our spiritual side can’t be seen or touched, but it can be experienced. Human life is biological, but it transcends biology. We are spiritual beings as well who carry on even after the biological machine stops running. And someday, if our spirits are alive in Jesus, we will be bodily resurrected as He was.

For more information about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you may be interested in a free online booklet we’ve written called, “Coming Home: An Invitation to Join God’s Family.”