A friend on Facebook posted her ponderings, inspired by a walk through a cemetery. Memorial stones of lives lived, reminders of the fleeting nature of life in the scheme of things.
Coincidentally, a few days ago, I completed the order for my own sister’s memorial plaque. She passed suddenly a year ago, and with lockdowns and other challenges this piece of helping my mother has been a challenge to complete.
It got me thinking. Reduced to a turn of phrase, some dates, and names, what do we leave behind?
My father used to tell me that he hoped that people’s lives were the better for having known him.
My sister’s plaque will sit with his.
My father was an atheist, at best agnostic. He saw no other purpose for his existence, a mere chance happening in a cosmos spinning out of control.
I’m glad he was my dad ♥️
Ironically, he would always stop for the one distressed or in need as he walked through life. He was not perfect, but he expressed his love for others as best he could. He demonstrated compassion. He said, not long before he died, that the gift of Christ sounded too good to be true.
I have pondered his words many times since. I have pondered the words that will be inscribed on my sister’s plaque too.
We have this life to make an impact. I do not know what those that I leave behind will write for me. I hope though, that the impact of my life was one that resonated more of faith, hope, love and encouragement than my struggle and very real failings.
I hope what I leave behind is an understanding that there is a God who loves us well. He is a kind God, and one worth meeting through the loving arms of Jesus Christ.
Life is a mystery, but one I sit comfortably within. Purpose, desires, hopes, struggles, fears, hurts will go in a flash, as we step through to the place where there are no more tears, into the arms of Jesus.
©Beth Kennedy 2022