What Will Your Epitaph Say?
There are some really great messages on some of the tombstones in the cemeteries across the country. Most of these messages are very serious, but there are some which are humorous. A man in California wrote on his wife’s tombstone, "A sense of loss is mine to bear, but hers a wondrous gain."
One marker in New Hampshire bears the following poem:
"Stop reader, pray and read my gate
What caused my life to terminate.
For thieves by night when in my bed
Broke in my house and shot me dead."
A gravestone in Albany, N.Y. says, "Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down. It was!"
On many occasions I have thought about the lives of people and what kind of epitaph we might leave on their monument. For example, take Ahab in I Kings 16. It is said that he "did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him" (16:33). How would that do for a message on a marker?
On the other hand, it is said of Hananiah, "For he was a faithful man, and feared God above many" (Neh. 7:2). This would not be a bad epitaph!
One of the great statements about Jesus is found in Acts 10:38. "He went about doing good." I would not mind that being on my marker. Also, Paul, toward the end of his life, and in his last letter that we have, said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (II Tim. 4:7). I really like this sentiment. And what about Paul’s statement, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"? (Phil. 1:21) We do not know what, if anything, was on Paul’s grave-marker, but either of his above statements would have been appropriate.
What could be truthfully written about you, and placed on your monument? What will your epitaph say?
– Max Patterson, 4438 South 89th Road, Bolivar, MO 65613-8012
