Between Thanksgiving and Christmas this past year, five members of our church family passed. Any time is a tough time to lose a loved one, but the holiday season is exceptionally difficult for most folks trying to manage their grief amid the lights, decorations, and all the other seasonal hooha. As a pastor of a Christian congregation, I understand the sting of death in the echoes of God’s promise of everlasting life, that believers need not fear the grave (see 1 John 5:11). We Lutherans fondly speak of the “community of saints” made up of the believers who suffer in ...