Epitaphs

My wife's oldest sister died last week.  Janice had a stroke on Saturday and by Wednesday she was gone.  It was a shock.  She will be greatly missed by our family.

When my mom died in 1999, I decided to say some appropriate things at the graveside service.  For inspiration I visited the cemetery where she would be buried.  It was and is rather unkempt, weedy and overgrown--the kind of cemetery I prefer. Kind of a back-to-nature place.

While walking among the monuments I noticed the gravestone of a young boy. He had died in the 1880's at around 10 years old.  It didn't say how he lost his life, but many of the young were taken by disease in those days.

In my mind's eye I could see a line of carriages coming up the dusty road led by the horse-drawn hearse. I saw the mourners dressed in black gathered at the tomb saying their goodbyes. I could see it.  And then it was 1999 again.

Inscribed on the granite was the boy's name and his dates, and beneath them was inscribed the promise for which those of us who believe await:  "Safe in the Arms of Jesus".  

That child is over 125 years gone, but that hope and that promise remains to this day for those of us who know Christ.