More Than A Dash
A headstone is an earthly reminder of life.
The dash which represents years of life filled with stories and adventures, heartaches and dreams has a lot to live up to. It’s a small engraving, a dash. It holds all of our secrets, maybe even a few we never shared with anyone. It’s a big responsibility to be the keeper of such information. It’s a place on a headstone between the day you were born and the day you die. It makes us wonder.
How do I live my dash?
Is Jesus involved?
How will people know?
This leads me to think my dash actually needs to be a cross. After all, a cross tells a more complete story. A dash says nothing. It cannot speak to my life lived, but a cross represents the most important parts. There is no better replacement for my dash than the story the cross tells.
It tells all the world my best life was lived by the script of one divine heritage. It is a simple story of love, forgiveness
The cross doesn’t erase all the things from our former life; it covers them.
It provides the only available bridge from sin to forgiveness. It offers hope for those we leave behind. It gifts peace to those who mourn. The cross in place of a dash is an accessory to our already amazing life story carved out on a rock in the place we are laid to rest..
Our family, adventures, successes, failures and disappointments are still all there, part of our history. The career we had, the hobbies we poured into and the friends we loved are all still part of our legacy. Our story doesn’t go away or change. It simply gets covered with grace and mercy. Because we choose these things, the cross stands for all of it.
So the question becomes- when our time comes, do we place a cross in place of a dash?
Do we allow our faith to live on as a legacy of hope for future generations?
I think it is a good plan to be represented by more than a dash.
XOXO
