“Get her the best, he said.”

Last Sunday I was at Star of David Cemetery to perform an unveiling. I stopped at  our Temple’s section and photographed our bench. We have come a long way since the congregation’s first funeral there when we were told not to mention “HIM,” or else. I am a strong advocate of “pre-need” planning since my first experience with a husband having to make funeral arrangements while in DEEP grief for his wife of many years who had just been “Promoted to Glory.” “Get her the best,” he kept saying over and over again. No amount of reasoning could sway him, and certainly not the fact that he couldn’t afford “the best,” or that his wife wouldn’t have wanted “the best.”  Shortly after that, Jamie and I met with a “pre-need” counselor and made arrangements, both financial and ceremonially, for the final resting place of our physical remains. We are still holding on to the “soon return of Yeshua,” in which case we may not need those arrangements, but we didn’t want our children to be burdened with having to deal with those themselves. I strongly encourage you to make “pre-need” arrangements which should include a will, a funeral plan, a Medical Directive, and appointing someone as your legal guardian should you become incapacitated and unable to make decisions for yourself. By the way, the Temple bench is right over our burial plot. I thought it was a fitting tribute to fulfilling the vision to “Start a Messianic Synagogue”  given to me by the Lord in July of 1976.