Jennifer Beard's comments on Easter

I read Jennifer's entry about this past Easter and how tough it was with loved ones dying.  I said the following on her blog:

We were in Chattanooga for Easter and went to church with my mother-in-law. The pastor gave an illustration at the end of the sermon that I believe speaks to the "missing but not gone forever" that I see in your writing.

He talked about a nice restaurant in Orlando to which they'd received a gift certificate. It was one of those place where they put your napkin in your lap. His wife got up to go to the powder room and the waiter, after she was up and gone, folded the napkin in some kind of fancy pattern and put it at her place.

There is a tradition, some places online I've found it referred to specifically as a Jewish tradition, about how the master of a household would use his napkin to tell the servants if he was done with the meal. If he got up, wiped his mouth, cleaned his beard, then wadded up the napkin and threw it on the table, he was done with the meal and not returning. The servants were then free to clean up the table without interrupting him.

If, however, the master wiped his mouth and beard the folded the napkin and placed it on the table, he was saying to the servants, "I'll be back."

John 20:6,7 "Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen."

Jesus threw away the burial linen because He was done with death, yet He folded the burial cloth because He was coming back. We'll she Mike, Shane, and Allie after we get there or He comes back.