How sad to come to the end of your life and others not have anything good to say about you!

THE REASON WE REMEMBER GREAT PEOPLE

These are reported to be actual epitaphs on tombstones:

Here lies

Johnny Yeast

Pardon me

For not rising.   (Ruidoso, New Mexico)

 

Here lays Butch,

We planted him raw.

He was quick on the trigger,

But slow on the draw.   (Silver City, Nevada)

 

Anna Wallace

The children of Israel wanted bread

And the Lord sent them manna,

Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife,

And the Devil sent him Anna.  (Ribbesford, England)

 

Margaret Daniels

She always said her feet were killing her

but nobody believed her.   (Richmond, Virginia)

 

Anna Hopewell

Here lies the body of our Anna

Done to death by a banana

It wasn’t the fruit that laid her low

But the skin of the thing that made her go.

(Enosburg Falls, Vermont)

 

Harry Edsel Smith

Born 1903–Died 1942

Looked up the elevator shaft to see if

the car was on the way down. It was.    (Albany, New York)

 

An anonymous tombstone:

I was somebody.

Who, is no business

Of yours.       (Stowe, Vermont)

 

In Memory of Beza Wood

Departed this life

Nov. 2, 1837

Aged 45 yrs.

Here lies one Wood

Enclosed in wood

One Wood

Within another.

The outer wood

Is very good:

We cannot praise

The other.    (Winslow, Maine)

How sad to come to the end of your life and others not have anything good to say about you!  Hebrews 11 could be viewed as a collection of epitaphs of many who had died.  The chapter starts with these words:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” (Hebrews 11:1-2)

I like how the New Century Version translates verse 2:  “Faith is the reason we remember great people who lived in the past.”  That’s true, isn’t it?  Every single person in the Bible we regard as “great” was a man or woman of faith.  That faith made a difference in the way they lived and responded to God.  That’s why we remember them.

May your life be characterized by faith in God so that those who prepare your tombstone won’t struggle with finding something kind to say.

Have a great day!

Alan Smith

 

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