What Do These Stones Mean?

I have spent a significant amount of time in cemeteries lately because of my research into my family history. All sorts of headstones and epitaphs fill the corners of every community, large or small. There’s nowhere you can drive without passing a burial ground of some sort. These are the sacred places where we lay our loved ones to rest and we mark them so that we and other generations after us know where to find them.

Walking through the graveyard is always a solemn experience. Every stone has a name carved in it along with two dates. But it isn’t just a name or a year. These are real people who once lived and breathed. They laughed, they cried. They were farmers, woodworkers, housewives, students, soldiers, nurses, all making their mark on history during their short stay on earth.

The ornate tombstones sticking out of the ground collectively are a stark and sobering reminder to the living that we all will someday be under one of those stones. It’s not something we want to think about because it is morbid to us. But the uncomfortable thought of our own mortality forces us to ponder the age-old questions, ‘what is my purpose in life?’ and ‘where am I going when I die?’. Every grave marker represents death. Death was introduced into the world by the first man, Adam, when he disobeyed God by eating from a tree that he was specifically told not to eat from. He rebelled against his Creator. God had warned him that if he ate from the tree, he would surely die. He didn’t die immediately, but the process of decay had begun. Eventually Adam died physically and every human after him is appointed to die. It is an undeniable fact that no one lives forever on this earth. Everyone dies, and most will be buried in the dirt from whence they came. Someone will pay to have stones set up with our names and dates on them. Those stones will become part of the landscape until kingdom come.

Thankfully we just don’t end up in the ground forever. The Lord made us with a soul, and the one who has put their faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross will be the one who spends eternity in Heaven. They body will lie in decay below the surface of the ground and then someday be united with their spirit at the resurrection.

Visiting the graveyard is often a healthy thing to do. We grieve the loss of a loved one. We honor our fallen military members. We may be doing genealogical studies. We may even just be going for a peaceful walk there. These are all good things, but if we stop there, then we’ve missed another very important purpose of a graveyard with all it’s markers. In the Old Testament, many times people would erect stones at a location where something significant happened. Then in future days, their children or grandchildren would ask, ‘why are these stones here, and what do they mean?’ It was a perfect opportunity to then tell the stories of the wonderful things the Lord had done at the place.

When we see a cemetery, do we ask ‘why are all these stones here, and what do they mean?’