"The Reports of My Death..."

Renehan Delaney, 42, saw his dad on TV. The only problem, they had buried his dad 5 years ago. Cremation even. Now there he is on a TV show about missing people.

Seems John Delaney went missing in 2000. He ended up in a hospital unsure of who he was or where he was from. His memory of those all important facts never returned. His family, clueless as to where John was, just assumed the worst.

In 2003, police in Manchester England found a badly decomposed body and decided it was John’s. The family had the body cremated and was finally able to close this horrible chapter of their lives. That is, until earlier this year when Renehan saw his dad on TV. After some DNA tests, the father and son have been united.

This isn’t the story of the prodigal son, but of the resurrected father. It’s the story of someone prematurely presumed dead. Just like Bloomberg did with Steve Jobs last week.

Just like the New York Times in January of 1966 when God was declared dead.

Wait a minute. Time for a retraction!

Have you ever had a funeral for God? Declared him dead in your life? Closed that chapter and moved on without him?

Then, all of a sudden, he shows back up! Quoting Mark Twain even. “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Of course he (God, not Twain) is not dead. Never has been, never will be. We can eulogize and funeralize all we want to. We can kick him out of our lives and tell him to go away, but causing the death of the divine is simply a feat never to be accomplished.

Of course, unlike John Delaney, God never forgets who he is.

Or who we are.

Or what he did for us.

So go ahead and pirouette on that tombstone you erected over his empty grave. When you trip and fall, look around and see who is still alive and ready to pick you up.