A Ruth's Reflection on the Death of a Patriarch
We have just returned from the funeral and burial of Isaiah's grandfather--William Ralph English. He was a true family patriarch. In case you're wondering, a patriarch is known as "one who rules a family, clan, or tribe," and the dictionary definitions today still reference the Biblical patriarchs for whom the term is named; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his 12 sons. In the Bible these Biblical patriarchs share certain similarities in their deaths and burials. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all "breathed their last and were gathered to their people;" they were all buried with their family; and in each account, the patriarch's sons (whether previously chummy or not) bury their father together. I might add that one other noteworthy commonality is that the patriarch's son(s) are blessed because of their father's faithfulness. Genesis 25, 35, and 49-50 all share these common elements. And so it was with Ralph English, the grandfather I barely knew as an in-l...