"What Do You Want On Your Tombstone"

 - 2 Kings 20:1-3

 ¹ In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” ² Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, ³ “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

I started a hobby a few years ago of restoring old pioneer cemeteries.  It has been a very interesting hobby.  What I have found out is I can talk to the dead all day long and they never talk back, they don’t complain about my work, they don’t have high expectations for me, they don’t asked me to set goals, if I don’t visit them for several weeks they don’t question my dedication and I am never expected to invite them home for dinner.  

What has been interesting is I have become attached to these people.  I want to know their story.  For the past three years I have spent hundreds of hours learning about the people buried in the Old Cemetery here in Thorntown.  What I have found is the forgotten story of those who are only remembered by what is written on their tombstone.  More often than not there is not much to remember them by—born and died is about all.

Some have been fortunate like Hezekiah and have been given additional days added to their life.  Others had their life cut short without ever having reached the promised seventy-years of age.  Walking through a cemetery reveals the fact that death is not a respecter of age, gender, race or social status.   

What will be said of you after you are dead and gone? I hear that the mortality rate is 100%. Will the thought of you be a blessing or burden? Remember, some people are blessings wherever they go; others are a blessing whenever they go! 

The short message on your tombstone may tell your whole life story in just a few lines.  I have read some very funny epitaphs which no doubt have an element of truth.  

1787 - Jones - 1855
Here lie the bones of Sophie Jones;
For her death held no terrors.
She was born a maid and died a maid.
No hits, no runs, and no heirs.
Scranton, Pennsylvania

We are not really defined by our birth date or our death date.  What we truly are is all summed up in that little dash which is everything.

Carried by Angels

Leonard Ravenhill

1907-1994

“Are the things you are living for

Worth Christ dying for?”

If you have been blessed with extended life or if God has granted you additional days as he did Hezekiah you might give it some thought what message you want to be read one hundred years from your death.