EPITAPHS

Give her the reward she has earned,

 and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:31

My husband was a history buff. Not only did he teach history, he really loved it! One thing he enjoyed was to visit old cemeteries. When we were on vacation, we would search out old cemeteries and walk through them, looking at the names and dates on the headstones. But the really interesting part was reading the epitaphs – the words that supposedly reflected the person whose bones rested there. It was all very fascinating.

I understand that W.C. Fields had etched on his tombstone, “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” And, how about the woman who had her potato salad recipe carved into her headstone. It seems that, during her lifetime everyone wanted that recipe, and her response was always, “Over my dead body.” Then there’s the woman who never gets quite enough sympathy when she’s feeling bad, so she wants to be remembered by these loving words: “See, I told you I was sick.”

Most of us won’t be able to write our own epitaph. It will be written by someone else…someone who will try to capture a single phrase that will sum up our entire life.

So…If you were to die today, what phrase do you think would capture your essence? What words characterize you?

In a sense, we are all writing our epitaph every day. I know people who are so rich in character that there are not enough words in the English language to describe the beauty and outreach of their life, much less to reduce that life to a single phrase. On the other hand, I know folks whose cantankerous spirit leaves one searching for something…anything…that can summarize their life kindly.

The Creator has made us each one of a kind. There is nobody else exactly like us, and there never will be. Each one of us is his special creation, and we are alive for a special purpose. Because of this, the person we are, and the contribution we make by being that very person, are vitally important to God.

Doesn’t that make you want to be today exactly who God made you to be?

Gracious God, thank you that you have made each of us unique, and you have a unique plan for each one of us. Show us your plan and give us the grace and courage to be just what you want us to be. Amen.

Pastor Ruth