November 2, 2018 (Friday)
Today is “Plan Your Epitaph Day.” It’s not as macabre or dark as it may first sound to our sensitive ears. It merely suggests that you might like to decide for yourself what will be written on the memorial stone above your grave.
When Wanda passed away, together with my children I selected a marker for the grave, and decided to make one stone for both our graves. I suggested that below our names the stone would read, “Servants of the Lord.” I think that is a fitting memory for others to have when they think of us. When we married in 1953, I had been preaching for 5 years and Wanda had always been available to play for worship services wherever she worshiped. At times in Oletha, my first pastorate, she or one of her sisters would lead the singing.
When Wanda’s mother selected the stone for the graves of her husband and herself, she requested that this quotation be on the one stone displaying both names: “Only one life ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last,” from a poem written by Charles T. Studd (1860-1931), a citizen of the British Empire. She specifically chose that quotation as a means of witnessing long after her death.
These two markers are in Ferguson Cemetery, not far from where Wanda was raised and I was ordained to the ministry (in 1951). The oldest marked grave there is dated 1866.
You might like to read some interesting epitaphs. Just browse the web and you will find them.
A very interesting cemetery (Hope Cemetery) near Barre, Vermont is known for its one-of-a-kind granite sculptures. Wanda and I visited there in 1997. I’ll never forget that. You can click here to view it. It displays pictures of the monuments, each one totally unique. One is a bed with a husband and wife settling down for a long sleep. Wanda really liked that one.
“Abide with Me” is a Christian hymn written by Scottish Anglican Henry Francis Lyte.
1. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide; the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away; change and decay in all around I see; O thou who changest not, abide with me.
3. I need thy presence every passing hour. What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power? Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
4. I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless; ills have no weight, and tears not bitterness. Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory? I triumph still, if thou abide with me.
5. Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes; shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.