I changed my Facebook cover tonight and this devotional entry is tied in to the picture. This is from December 31, 2011.
On Wednesday, I spent close to an hour with Aunt Jerry and Uncle Jack in the New Corinth Cemetery outside of Nashville, Arkansas. It's not a family graveyard but it's safe to say, I think, I have some sort of a DNA connection with most interred there, including my parents and grandparents and assorted kin. Someday, I'll be laid to rest on that small piece of land as will a good number of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. If you had asked me when I was a kid if it would bother me to see my parents' grave, I'm sure I would have said yes but I've found it's not the case. It won't matter when I'm gone but it's a beautiful setting, this hilltop cemetery, overlooking the countryside and full of history. There was a church building adjacent to the tombs, the place where my folks exchanged their vows. Aunt Jerry told me that the only two weddings ever held in the Corinth church building were my parents' and when Mom's first cousin, Gena, married John Davis several years later. I loved going to worship there when I was a little boy but as often happens in rural areas, the church closed and the members went to other congregations.
My brother, Scott, was in charge of arranging the ordering of the headstone for Mom and Dad's grave and he was blessed with the assistance of Uncle Bill who has at least a passing acquaintance with every person in Arkansas and the surrounding states. Between them, they did a wonderful job! As I took some pictures Wednesday, I noticed something for the first time; our folks' anniversary was carved into the stone, intertwined with the date which you will see happened to be Christmas Day. Knowing Scott, I'm sure he asked for input on the specifics of the marker but as I did not remember, I was so happy to see it there. In my memory, I can't separate one from the other because to me, they were one as God stated in Genesis 2. Several minutes ago, I was talking on the phone with a friend and she asked about my holiday. From force of habit, I told her that, 'I went to see my folks.' I quickly corrected myself but you know, there was some accuracy to my original statement. Mom and Dad don't live in that meadow in Howard County, Arkansas but I feel happiness walking the site of their burial because of how they lived their lives. They lived their lives together.
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