Chiseling Names Deeper Into the Grave Stones

I am reminded of the character of Old Mortality in a Sir Walter Scott novel; he traveled about Scotland with a chisel deepening the lettering on ancient gravestones lest the names be forgotten.

It seems that much of what we do here on earth is chiseling names a little deeper into the stones of life so that our names are not forgotten. Some of try to be remembered for what we have done, others for what we have said, but both are fleeting remembrances, to say the least.

Like the proverbial "Gone but not forgotten" on the tombstone that is broken and fallen over, with every sign of being not only gone but truly forgotten, we vainly struggle to be remembered in a world quick to forget.

That is why we need something more than chiseling our names deeper upon the stones that mark our graves. We need the life that is stronger than death, that has cheated death of its victory and the grave of its sting. We need to be born anew into that living hope that endures when this world is passed and its memory lingers no more. We need to be remembered by the One whose remembering has the power to bring us through death to life everlasting.

A few simple words spoken from one dying man to another, "Remember me..." and words that shook the gates of hell and rattled death with its own death rattle... "Today, with Me... in paradise."

That is what we long for -- to be remembered. This God offers and more. For when the Lord remembers the past is reborn as the present and the ending limits of the future are removed so that we can, in some way beyond imagination, become immortal by His grace and guarantee...

Here on earth we struggle with our chisels to deepen the impressions that time erodes but it is a hopeless task and an endless duty... until He who comes with life and power calls us from death's prison to life's rich green pasture and still quiet water and rich banquet feast for all eternity.

Lord, remember me...