October 22, 2025
As this month ends, we will remember the ones who have blessed us and gone to God’s blessings on All Saints Sunday, October 26th. This service moves me every year as the rows of candles come alight and glow, revealing just how much brightness the saints among us have shown.
Their glow also reveals the traces of tears down our cheeks.
I would love to remember those who’ve blessed me with an unwounded heart. I would love to sing their praises unrestrainedly. I would love to speak of their virtues without a tremor. I would love to celebrate their life in God’s realm without regret. Of course, I cannot.
Grief cannot be disentangled from love. God holds our loved ones in tender care, in new life, and in everlasting love. I believe that’s true. It is also true that the soft words, the gentle hugs, and the merry smiles I’ve treasured in them are now lost to me save in memory. That hurts. I wish it didn’t, but it hurts.
We light our candles as a reflection of their brightness. We also light our candles to bring new light to our own hearts.
Come honor and remember the saints of our lives on October 26th. Come light a candle in their memory. Come and feel again the joy they brought you, and feel again the grief of their loss. Come celebrate the saints, and recall that one day we will be restored to one another in the gracious love of God.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
