What Will Remain?

I sat on a wooden bench facing a beautiful stone church while behind me in neat rows were slate gray-washed tombstones. Some stones were leaning dangerously to one side, others looked like gaping teeth, while other markers were firmly rooted in the soil as if to defy the march of time.

Without reading the inscription, I suppose the deceased stretched back a hundred years ago. Lives that once lived in the local area only to be planted in this quaint New England cemetery. What a different world it must have been, I thought, glancing toward the busy street just a few hundred feet away where cars, bikes and pedestrian moved swiftly along Broadway like an anxious river rushing toward a delta of some sort.

My eyes shifted to a patch work of stone blocks sunk into the ground bearing the names of individuals along with their year of birth and death. Above the blocks was a simple sign that read, "Shepherd's Fold". I did some math to learn most of these people lived to be in their mid or late seventies while a few lived to be in their eighties.

I was reminded of Psalms 90:10 that says, "Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away." (NLT).

For the longest time I took in the summer air, felt the sun dance over my skin and stared at the thick, heavy blocks that made up the solid structure of the church. We are here for just a moment, but what God is doing in and through our lives is eternal.

I pushed to my feet and started to walk along a narrow path around the church.

We know the weight of the day, the pain, sorrow and the highs and lows of life will all cease when we draw our final breath, but in heaven, the richest reward awaits for a life well lived for Jesus. A life that extends far beyond the natural life and into the spiritual lives of those still on earth.

Beloved, each day live for Jesus, be the example of Christ, let His life be lived through this temporary frame, and you'll see one day what an eternal house of glory He is building - His church, His Bride!