As I’ve lost more family and friends in the last few years, I’ve become convinced of several truths.
Death is spiteful.
It wants to rob us of peace.
It’s ugly.
And it’s the great equalizer.
No matter how beloved a person or how despised, how humble or exalted, whether their death is memorialized by the thousands or unknown by more than a few, Death waits for us all.
I took the above picture of Charles Lindbergh’s gravesite on Maui in March of this year.
I’ve wanted to visit the site for several years, which is a bit odd in itself since I’m not one of those people who like to visit cemeteries or collect epitaphs.
I think it’s because I believe there’s more to the Lindberghs’ story. I don’t know much of it, just bits and pieces garnered here and there .
I memorized Psalm 139 a few years ago and my curiosity was piqued when I learned that a portion of it was engraved on Lindbergh’s grave marker.
“If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea …”
It’s fitting, isn’t it? For the man who flew across oceans and ultimately died and chose to be buried across the sea.
But that’s only a portion of the verse.
I memorized a slightly different version.
“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
The fact that the hopeful portion of that verse was omitted from the marker raises all kinds of questions for me.
Did Lindbergh himself choose the verse? Did his wife? Other family members? Did they leave off the rest of it because of cost? Did they know Lindbergh did or didn’t believe the promise?
Ultimately, I know it doesn’t matter to anyone but me if those questions are ever answered. Knowing won’t change anything.
Lindbergh is still dead. Still in heaven or hell.
I do know one thing for sure.
As hateful and spiteful as death is, as a believer in Jesus the Christ, I will experience death of my physical body, but I get to sneer at Satan and his plan to destroy me. I have the hope and the promise from another portion of Psalm 139.
“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
My days here are numbered. God knows when they began and when they will end.
Heaven has become more dear to me as so many friends and family members move into the mansions.
One day, hopefully not soon, I will get the last laugh at Satan and death. In the meantime, I still hate death. It’s malicious and I can’t wait for the day it will end its reign.
Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family 