There’s something about cleaning and repairing an old gravestone that puts you in touch with your own mortality. With a few exceptions, the stones in Old First’s historic cemetery have not been cleaned since being erected. The passage of centuries not only made the stones dark but it is almost impossible to read the names of those buried.
The names of the dead are important to us, a way of keeping them alive, at least in our memories. Many killed either in today’s Sudan and Ukraine, or in the 1915 Armenian Genocide do not have graves with markers or names. Their deaths, however, should not be forgotten. As John Donne so eloquently put it, “No man is an island, each man is a part of the continent, a part of the main.”
Whether the death was of a single person or of a people, we should hold those deaths and our memories of their lives dear to our hearts. As the gravestone was cleaned, the name of the young woman leapt out: Charlotte. I ran my fingers over her name. Let us run our fingers over our memories of those we have loved and lost.
Prayer for the Day
God of memories, old and new, beautiful and sad,
Grace us today with your presence in our lives,
God of broken hearts, mend us and heal us,
Enabling us to embrace the future.
Set us free from what binds us and holds us down,
Freeing us to catch a glimpse of your kingdom.
In the name of him who showed us how to live,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
To be human is to have a collection of memories that tells you who you are and how you got there.
- Rosencrans Baldwin, American novelist, essayist
Nothing is really lost as long as you remember it.
- Ally Conde, American writer
Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding,
For her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Proverbs 3: 13-15