Just Two

I pass them every Sunday morning on my way to preach at Rocky Ford.  While I do not notice them every Sunday, few are the times I pass by without thinking about them.  Actually, most people who pass along that stretch of road do not see anything except the ditch and pine thicket on the other side of it.  However, I do not fault these who do not see.  I never would have seen them either if someone had not told me to slow down and look carefully in the edge of the woods along that stretch of road.  When driving along at normal driving speed, it is impossible to see them.  It is only when driving just faster than a crawl that they come into view. 

 

What stands there on the edge of the road between Portal and Rocky Ford is a cemetery with two headstones.  Around the graves is a panel fence to separate the burial ground from the rest of the ground around it.  Most likely at some time, someone figured more than just two would be buried there, but plans are often changed by the living we do.  Fortunately, someone along the way cared enough about preserving burial ground, even one as small as this one, and a protective fence barrier was erected to set it a part from the rest of the land.

 

Burial places have always been important to us.  Joseph's ancestors carried his bones out of Egypt to a proper burial back home.  Some interesting stories take place in some New Testament cemeteries.  One day when I do not have on my Sunday shoes and preaching clothes, I want to stop, go down in the ditch, climb up the other side, make my way through the brambles, and stand alongside this mostly forgotten cemetery.  If I can read the names, I want to speak them once again and ask God to keep blessing the good that was a part of their lives.