I remember Memorial Day when I was a child. The part about the flowers I understood. Beginning days before, my dad and I would cut peonies from the bushes in our backyard, and stash the buds in No. 3 washtubs of cold water. By the time Memorial Day arrived, our basement looked as beautiful as any florist shop. (You remember No. 3 washtubs, don’t you? I used one of the galvanized steel barrels to bathe in the winter we lived in a house with no indoor facilities.)

We would load the Studebaker to the gills with peonies and head to the cemeteries. That part I didn’t understand. They were not particularly interesting to a child, and there were a lot of them. Mt. Muncie, Bethel, Huron Indian, Highland Park. There were more, and by the time we finished we had run out of flowers, and I had long run out of patience. All I knew is that’s where the dead people were, and I did not understand death, either.

I do now. I understand how utterly horrible and final death is, and how it puts an end to all we cherish and value as living human beings. As a young adult I spent years questioning and fearing death. If the grave is the natural end of everything, doesn’t that negate all the love, warmth, joy, light and happiness that life is supposed to hold? If the end goal of my life is to die and rot, doesn’t that make everything else rather hollow? Doesn’t it make the idea of a good God a cruel absurdity, or at least turn whoever is running the universe into a sadistic jokester? The act of dying may bring peace and relief from suffering, but death itself flies in the face of all that we assume is noble and right about human beings.

But I have learned more. I am now beginning to understand resurrection. Death is not the final answer. Resurrection is. Resurrection is not the vague idea of an indeterminate, spooky afterlife. Resurrection is not floating around on a cloud with a harp or (if you prefer) an electric guitar. Resurrection is not hanging around tombstones hoping for somebody to bring you peonies on Memorial Day. Resurrection is simply the most radical, intellectually satisfying solution to the problem of human existence conceivable. It is the only view of afterlife that allows an individual to survive death as a real, distinct individual with personality not only intact, but enhanced. Resurrection gives meaning to one’s present and future life -- if it is true.

Resurrection is a Christian idea. Its truth or falsehood is tied in totally with what you believe about God. Resurrection is the revelation of a God who is there for us and has provided a way for us to be there with him. It has been accomplished by his life poured into us through Jesus Christ his Son and our Savior. If you believe he is the way, the truth, and the life, then the biggest problem of human existence, death, is solved.

The peonies will continue to bloom in my front yard this year. I will not be able to go to the cemeteries where my loved ones are buried this Memorial Day. But I will be with them one day, that great day of Resurrection, when believers are reunited as bodies and souls are fused again into distinct, conscious, real, and complete individuals who are alive forever. This old body that once had to be washed clean in a No. 3 washtub will be spotless and perfect as a new creation in Christ. This I do not begin to understand, but I believe with all my heart and life.