"Good Riddance!"

Reading the Bible in different translations has the effect of slowing me down as I confront slightly different language and nuances of truth. I was startled in my present reading of Second Chronicles in the New Living Translation. Chapter 21 concludes with, "No one was sorry when he died (King Jehoram of Judah). He was buried in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery."

Epitaphs can be amusing or sobering. On Effie Jean Robinson’s tombstone is etched sobering advice.

Come blooming youths, as you pass by,

And on these lines do cast an eye.

As you are now, so once was I;

As I am now, so must you be;

Prepare for death and follow me

Good advice, but not funny at all. But someone added:

To follow you

I am not content,

How do I know

Which way you went?

A grave marker in Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona, adds local flavor and offers a bit of levity.

Here lays Butch.

We planted him raw.

He was quick on the trigger

But slow on the draw.

I suppose a fitting epitaph for Jehoram might be, "Good Riddance!" When David died, however, the nation grieved the death of their leader.

How we live determines how others feel about our passing and how Jesus will either celebrate or lament our entrance into eternity. In Matthew 25 Jesus used a very simple, but picturesque word picture to define the final judgment.

A high school English assignment included memorizing William Cullen Bryant’s "Thanatopsis." The last few lines are etched in my memory and serve as purifying influence in daily life.
"So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
Am I feeling moribund this morning? No, I just don’t want folks brushing off my life with a "Good riddance!" And I really want to hear a hearty, "Well done!" Each day we contribute to the pool of evidence from which the verdict will be made. The Psalmist prayed, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)