Here and There

It is not an uncommon sight to see a fenced in graveyard out in the midst of a plowed field.  In some places graves might be moved to a new place to allow for progress to do its work, but out in the country it is more likely that the living will simply work around the dead.  There is even a very small graveyard nearby which stands on the edge of the wooded fringe of the highway right of way that can only be seen by those who know it is there and slow down enough to see.  Memorial cemeteries where every grave looks alike create a different feel than those where tombstones epitaphs tell stories about what happened between date of birth and date of death.

 

Folks have been burying their dead since the beginning.   Most of us were taught early on to show respect for those who are laid to rest around us.  As children we were told not to step on or walk on someone's grave.  The graveyard was not a place for playing, but for respecting and honoring.  The way we live with such regard for those who have gone before us says something about the way we value one another and life itself.

 

When the Hebrews headed back to the Promised Land after hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt, they carried the bones of their ancestor, Joseph.  When it was time to bury his wife, Abraham bought land so that it could be his land and not land that belonged to another.  When Jesus was taken down from the cross, two men of prominence made sure His body was laid to rest in a tomb lest it suffer some terrible fate.  For many of us those places where we have left our loved ones have become special places on this earth, perhaps, even holy ground.  Sometimes it seems as we walk those grounds, the distance between here and there is so diminished that sounds of heaven are all but breaking in upon us.