[A
Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]
WHO DIED
July 5, 1886
The
words on a broken gravestone caught me off guard. The top had broken off
leaving a poignant plea with nothing nearby to help honor it.
Remember
me! It is a longing embedded in the human soul. We tell stories to our grandchildren.
Some write books. The wealthy seek to leave legacies for which they will be
remembered.
Remember
me! It is such a sad heart cry. Memories are short. One may visit cemeteries
and walk, unknowing and uncaring, past the grave of a President.
Even great
monuments erected by an adoring public will become out-of-the-way stopping
places for the dedicated few who actually enjoy history. Stories are forgotten,
books meet the dumpster, legacies are spent or desecrated.
Remember
me! The cry is most wrenching in light of the reality that being remembered really
does no good to the person himself. Testimonies of prisoners of war speak of the
devastation of not knowing if anyone really
is remembering, and the frustration that, even if they are, there is
nothing they can do for them. Yet, interestingly, it is at this point where one
man did discover for all of us that we need not be forgotten.
Remember
me! It was the agonized cry of a thief on a cross who found himself next to the
one Man whose memory has eternal importance. “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” His was not a request for good thoughts in future generations.
His request was to be remembered and brought into a life where relationships
would be living, ongoing, and continually renewed.
There
is an epitaph on that anonymous headstone. It describes the plea and the hope
of the man who asked Jesus, his sin-bearer, to remember him.
Friend nor
physician could not save
This mortal body
from the grave.
Nor can the
grave contain it here
When Christ
commands it to appear.
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