Perhaps you’ve had the experience: a friend dies, and then there’s neither funeral nor burial service, but there is a “Celebration of Life” at a later date. There is surely nothing wrong with celebrating someone’s life. It honors that person and may edify us to recall with others the good things this friend said or did. But somehow, barring extraordinary circumstances, this doesn’t seem to do justice to the great event. The whole purpose of life is union with God in love.