Stories in Stone

In December 1876, Martin Hobbins left home to go droving. Out of touch with his family for about five months, he returned home to discover that, during his absence, four of his children had succumbed to diphtheria. Furthermore, his wife had died while giving birth to twins who also failed to survive. Over the next several months, Martin designed, formed up, laid and inscribed five large headstones with his own hands. He then carried each of them by horse and dray to Uarbry cemetery and erected them over the graves of his family. These five distinctive tombstones still stand in a row as silent testimony to a family tragedy.

At Goulburn cemetery, a monument marks the spot where a young couple is buried. It was their wedding day - a happy family occasion, a time of giving and receiving love and making pledges, followed by a reception with their friends and family and a great send-off on their honeymoon. But only a few miles out of Goulburn, their car left the road and they were both killed.

As I have recorded the details of tens of thousands of cemetery inscriptions, I have often thought about the circumstances of the lives and deaths that they record, as well as the lives left behind.

"... my beloved wife"

"... our dear son, accidentally killed, aged 18 years"

"... leaving a wife and four children to mourn their loss."

"... killed in a mining accident"

Decisions

Someone once suggested that, when you need to make an important decision, you should make it in a cemetery. I guess that's because it is a place where the differences between the important and trivial issues of life fall into focus; it's a place where the competing voices of the world die away and the fact of death is obvious.

A friend waved his hand as he drove past the local cemetery one day. "They've all had their chance," he said, "I wonder what they did with it."

Their chance at what? He was referring to their chance at life. What did they do with the life they lived, whether it was long or short?

You could say that life is all about choices. Every day we have to make trivial choices - what will we wear? where will we shop? what will we have for lunch? The answers to those questions are really of little consequence.

Then there are others - where will I live? what career path shall I choose? whom will I marry? They are more important because the decisions we make about them have long term significance. If we make the wrong decision, we can live long to regret it.

The Question

There is one question that we all have to answer. It is more important than any other that we will ever have to decide because the effect of that decision is eternal. The question: What will I do about Jesus?

For Jesus is the author and the creator of life. Death came into the world as a result of sin. Like a plague, it spread to every person, so every person dies. But the creator of life has had compassion on all of us afflicted with this disease of death. He has made it possible for us to receive new life - eternal life - where death will cease to be within our experience. He did this by dying in our place. He died our death and offers us his life in exchange.

What an offer! However, it needs to be accepted. It's never forced on anyone.

Make the right choice about Jesus and we can't lose. Make the wrong choice about Jesus and we've blown it – for good!

I liked this inscription on a headstone: "Waiting for resurrection day". There's someone who made the right choice.

Reg McDonell