Today, I am reviewing Registry of Life, a website that allows the living to honor those who’ve passed on. The website charges a one time setup fee of $49.95, and there are no annual renewal fees. They offer several additions to your site such as photo slideshows and music. You can see a sample registry here.

Passed. Gone on before. Crossed over. Died. We have a hard time with that last short word, don’t we? Have you ever noticed that we as a society abhor death? We refute and run from it, and generally act like it’s something to avoid at all costs. Let me tell you, that’s an inaccurate perception. I have watched bodies hang on to life, long after the mind and soul were ready to quit and be done. Folks stricken by debilitating disease that wasted them, emaciated them to the point that they weighed half what their healthy selves weighed. Death can be a sweet release, and for the Christian, it’s just graduation day. Paul tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

I remember years ago when I was a child, hearing Oral Roberts tell the world that God has told him if he didn’t raise a million dollars for the campus he (Oral) was building, God would “call him home”. I remember that I thought at the time, “so, what’s the problem?” See, in my mind, he was either getting his college, or he was going to see Jesus (provided of course that he was saved). Either way, he WON!

Now let’s get back to Registry of Life. I’m all for honoring those who have passed on, and this website is a fine way to do it. But we as a society would do well to remember what death really is: a passage from one plane to the next. It’s not a finale, it’s a grand entrance.