Dia de los Muertos

In our worship celebration yesterday (11.05) at Fruitvale Church, we celebrated Dia de los Muertos, or All Saints' Day, in builidng an altar and placing picutres of loved ones that have died and gone before us into the mystery of God's Kingdom.The scripture passage upon which we reflected comes from Mark 12:28-34, in which Jesus teaches the essential link between how we love and serve God, and how we love and serve our neighbor or each other.

I was struck by the photos that had been lovingly placed with great care on our Day of the Dead altar - the memories that they evoked, the relationships that they symbolized, the blessing that those lives had been - and continue to be - to those that brought the photos.

If I slow down long enough, I'm able to create my own photo-album in my mind of the many people that have blessed me (wether they're dead or still living) through their friendship, mentoring, kindness, friendship, love, generosity, humor, or time.Loving you neighor as God loves us is in a sense paying what we want to give back to God out of generosity forward. In a similar, yet reciprocal way, I find that I often want to give grace and thanks back to God for the love that I've received for others. That's what it means to be "blessed," and to have a "bless'd day." How is it that you have been blessed by God or others? How do you "pay that forward" or pass it on?

Monte