When I left for work, just before lunch, President Bush's casket was being loaded onto Air Force One and his family was boarding the plane. When I got back home, mid-afternoon, his body was being carried up the steps of the Capitol as the U.S. Army Band played "A Mighty Fortress is Our God". Just beautiful. Before his eventual burial, he'll lie in state at the Capitol until Wednesday, when his state funeral will be held at the Washington National Cathedral. Then, his body will head back to Houston for a couple of more ceremonies before lying in repose at St Martin's Episcopal Church, where another funeral service will take place on Thursday. Then, the casket will leave by train for College Station and there will be another ceremony at Texas A&M before he is finally buried next to his wife and daughter behind the Bush Library. I'm tired just from typing it all out, so I can't imagine how his family will feel by week's end. It'll be hard to find a channel on TV that won't continue covering his life and his death until he's finally laid to rest. He was our president and it's what you'd expect when someone of his importance dies.

Our country has beautiful ceremonial traditions when it comes to saying goodbye to its leaders and its heroes. I always enjoy watching the meticulous details of the ceremonies and especially the precision of the soldiers' movements as they perform their duties. We've had several chances, lately, to see those played out with Billy Graham and John McCain's deaths. A lot of pageantry and solemnity on display.

Not long ago, we all watched the televised funeral of Aretha Franklin. It was the climax of a week long trail of events, which ended with quite a lengthy funeral service. Politicians, famous ministers, musicians, actors and actresses. There weren't many unrecognizable names written in the star studded guest book. It was like a red carpet event. She was the queen of soul and was honored by the masses, who wished to recognize her notable contributions to the music world. I mean, who didn't love Aretha?  

At the opposite end of life, Prince Harry and Meghan are expecting their first child in April. The press had a complete fit when they heard the news. They tend to do that when royals reproduce. They'll be waiting breathlessly to hear any new information concerning the birth. Any hint of the smallest new detail will spread like wildfire. And, surely, when they emerge from the hospital in the spring, holding the bundled royal, there will be cameras going off like mad....just like they did when Harry's brother introduced his children, heirs to the throne, to the world for the first time. Any sort of outing the couple has with their baby, from that day on, will be on magazine covers before dark falls.

Well, there's one thing, for sure. Most of our parents weren't greeted outside the hospital with an army of reporters and cameras waiting to get a glimpse of our newborn selves. I know that the public, at large, wasn't much interested in seeing Doug and Carolyn heading home with little Joni wrapped in her pink blanket back in the late 60's. Not much headline there. Ordinary parents welcome ordinary baby in ordinary Mississippi town. Well, I did have an extraordinary head full of black hair, but I still don't think that would've sold many papers.

And let's face it....most of us won't be honored with a state funeral or a flyover or a 21 gun salute. Of course, I can only speak for myself, but I feel certain my dead body will never see any kind of rotunda and my casket will not be allowed to sit on the same wooden platform used for Abraham Lincoln. There won't be a guard of honor anywhere around unless they're in the vicinity for someone else. And I haven't picked them just yet, but I have a feeling my pallbearers won't be quite as skilled as those guys are and I would probably end up at the bottom of the 300+ steps leading up to the Capitol. Sprawled out there on the ground with all of them scrambling to figure out how to get me back in the box in the most dignified manner. I can't imagine there would be many distinguished ways to do that. Kind of like somebody trying to get you up on a pool float, you know? Yeah, it's probably just best that I'm not a dignitary.

But, we're not alone. There's somebody else who didn't get that kind of grand welcome or that type of impressive send off either. A stable wouldn't be the setting we'd choose for a VIP to be born with only unkept shepherds and stinky animals there to share the parents' joy. Not quite the paparazzi, huh? And, at the end of His life, Jesus died in the most humiliating way. He died while being ridiculed and degraded. And talk about a small and understated funeral. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus prepared Him for burial with spices and linen and placed Him in a tomb. Only the two guys and a couple of Marys are mentioned as being there. That's it. No procession of chariots or large crowds or famous singers or pomp of any kind.

We have our ways of treating people, who are seen as important in this world. Some of them are deemed important just by being born into a certain family. Others gain their importance, later in life, by some achievement or status they acquire. But, nobody really noticed a baby born to an unwed mother in a barn. No national day of mourning was declared after He died between two criminals with the spittle of His killers on His face....even though, no other man has ever been born of both God and man as He was. He was royalty straight from the throne of Heaven. And no other man has ever achieved anything close to bridging the gap that sin put between God and us like He did. No other man could ever offer more to the world than eternal life like He did.

And He did it all so quietly. So humbly. And with no fanfare.

Not to, in any way, bash our longstanding national traditions or take anything away from the lives and contributions of our dignitaries, but no matter how large their funeral attendance or how many days their farewells last, when the bands quit playing and all of the limousines pull away, they're just like us...their only hope lies in a man, who came into the world and left it in the most unpretentious and humble ways.

Jesus is the only way.

Our humble King.