Dead Men Tell No Tales
I asked an Amish fried and they were unfamiliar with the expression...
The origin of the phrase "Dead Men Tell No Tales" is most often associated with a time of piracy but actually dates to the mid-1500's and a more proverbial "Dead men reveal no secrets." Obviously, the author was excluding one Man---Jesus Christ. Despite our fascination as a culture with remaining eternally young (looking at least), and despite incantations, potions, and prescriptions for longevity, every man must die. The secret that Christ tells from His resurrection is that dead men are not always dead men.
During lean years of college, my husband was the caretaker of a large cemetery up in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He had to dig the graves by hand, and me, being me, would often come and visit him with a picnic lunch for a digging or a burial. (Yes, odd, but that's a whole other blog). In any case, I remember this burial on St. Patrick's day for two reasons---because I brought green iced cupcakes and because the sun was shining brightly in a usual blah March sky...In any case, as I considered the sprays of flowers, and the new tombstone of the woman, as clear as a bell it came into my head "Why seek you the living among the dead?" I felt a joyous exuberance, a freedom, because somehow, God had let me know that this woman had been a believer in Christ. She didn't lie within the earth....she was far and away.
Too often we forget the triumph that Jesus has, that we have because of Him, over the secrecy of death. The Bible says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us in our daily lives, yet we so often grope along fearfully, scared of getting hurt, afraid to die. Seek to loose your life for Christ (not random sky diving with no parachute) but daily surrender to the power and the wonder of the once dead man who now tells the tale of eternal life...and follow hard after Him.
During lean years of college, my husband was the caretaker of a large cemetery up in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He had to dig the graves by hand, and me, being me, would often come and visit him with a picnic lunch for a digging or a burial. (Yes, odd, but that's a whole other blog). In any case, I remember this burial on St. Patrick's day for two reasons---because I brought green iced cupcakes and because the sun was shining brightly in a usual blah March sky...In any case, as I considered the sprays of flowers, and the new tombstone of the woman, as clear as a bell it came into my head "Why seek you the living among the dead?" I felt a joyous exuberance, a freedom, because somehow, God had let me know that this woman had been a believer in Christ. She didn't lie within the earth....she was far and away.
Too often we forget the triumph that Jesus has, that we have because of Him, over the secrecy of death. The Bible says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us in our daily lives, yet we so often grope along fearfully, scared of getting hurt, afraid to die. Seek to loose your life for Christ (not random sky diving with no parachute) but daily surrender to the power and the wonder of the once dead man who now tells the tale of eternal life...and follow hard after Him.
A great reminder of where we will be when our earthly bodies are laid in the ground. For those of us who are believers, we know that we will be with Jesus. It's a sad passing in one way when a person dies, but we know that we will see them again one day.
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That's so cool about your husband being a graveyard caretaker. My dad was a funeral director, (and yes, i have yet to hear a joke i haven't heard before, usually told by funeral directors themselves). Picnic in the cemetery? no problem. My grandfather was a funeral director as well, and the funny thing was that just before he agreed to be the undertaker, he wouldn't eat a meal with gravediggers. Too funny. Thanks, Kelly for sharing
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