GENESIS 5:24 – Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

THEME OF THE DAY. NONE GREATER. Imagine a stranger takes a walk through a cemetery. This individual is reading the words on the various gravestones. By the way, take an unhurried stroll through a cemetery soon. Do so for a few reasons. First, a walk outside is good exercise. Next, as we go through a cemetery, we will be taught two valuable lessons that will help us live right before the place we are walking becomes our bodies’ resting place.

First, we will come face-to-face with the one absolute certainty in life – death. The Bible says, “It is appointed unto man when to die, then the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Friends, we may cancel appointments in life or miss them, but not this one. It will be kept. The second lesson we learn from a walk in a cemetery is how brief life is. What we observe is what we will experience and that quickly. Life is short (Job 14:1). Another reason for a stroll through a cemetery is interesting, motivating, and thought-provoking. On our walk, read what is written on the headstones of people’s graves. It says a lot about them and what was important in their lives.

Now, further imagine someone else walking through a cemetery doing what I am suggesting of us. But this time, it is another person walking. This individual comes across a grave and begins to read its epitaph. It is ours. What would they read? What would have been put on it that reflects the life we lived?

In reading epitaphs, most are short. Here are three examples, “Rest in peace”, “Gone but not Forgotten” and “Beloved Mother/Father, Wife/Husband, and Friend.” Some are more detailed and revealing. Like this one written by Benjamin Franklin himself sixty years before his death, “The body of B. Franklin, Printer, Like the Cover of an old Book. Its Contents torn out. And stripped of its Lettering and Gilding. Lies here. Food for worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost. For it will as he believ’d appear once more In a new and more elegant Edition Corrected and improved By the Author.” But getting back to our epitaph. What would be found on our stone? Or better yet, what do we write of ourselves to be put on our stone? And still better yet, what would be put on our stones based on the life we lived?

We find in today’s scripture the ultimate epitaph. None greater would be said of us. It is just a one-word modification and that would be in the name. We read, “Enoch walked with God”. On our stone, the most important thing ever to be said of us or written of us is “(Our name) walked with God.” This is the greatest legacy to leave our families, churches, friends, and communities. Nothing matters more or will influence the best. We walked with God. And by God’s grace this may happen. It depends not on the future when someone etches our epitaph on a gravestone. No, it starts now. Today, and is being written every day of our lives. This “writing” is based on two things; our resolve to obey the Word of God and resistance to allow anything in this life to remove this resolve.

So, take a walk in a cemetery soon. It will prove to be a great teacher if we are paying attention.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to daily live a life that sends the message, ‘I walk with God.’”

QUOTE: “Nothing is more important in life than to have a reputation of walking with God.”