To live a lifetime measured in abundance of years, major accomplishments, attainment of wealth, knowledge, respect and the adoration of many is the desire of most people (ourselves inclusive if we’re honest). And when such a life has yielded to the limits of it days it would surely culminate in a fitting eulogy carefully crafted to encapsulate as much of this life as possible; accolades, analogies and reflections are used to present attributes like generosity, patience and instruction along with the personal sacrifice for others, the most common being “they were always there for me” . For the most part though they tend to be the same, a snap shot of sorts, where they were born, where they grew up, places they lived, schools attended, who they married, children, work history etc.
The eulogy serves a purpose for those who remain as well providing a sense of assurance, being delivered mostly for their own comfort and well being a voice that speaks “it’s” okay. Talking about “it” tends to settle the soul, distracting them from the reality of their own inevitable departure because all who have breath tend to fight against this eternal truth deep within their conscience with every last one of those breaths.
When all has been said the eulogy is finally sifted and distilled to a few lines (if not just one) which are then hammered into the surface of a memorial stone propped up on an uninhabited plot of land along side multiple rows of other similar stones as a witness, a reminder (to anyone who might take the time to visit) of “who” it is who lies here. The abundant life has left behind nothing more than a simple: “Husband, father, son, friend” followed by a beginning and ending date to establish for us the span of time during which this life occurred. These words provide for us a picture of relationships which helps us relate to them because we too (for the most part) have these same relationships in our own lives. But no matter how grand or simple the life lived the descriptive words chiseled into the surface of polished rock rarely do much to establish one man as being any different than another, we might prop up a bigger, fancier marker but the selection of words seldom moves beyond a limited few.
There’s commonness to the grave.
For me, of all the written words given as a witness to men there’s one in particular that stands out. It isn’t preceded by a grand eulogy nor does it have an epilogue typically reserved for statesmen or world leaders. The four words left as the definitive witness of this man’s life created in my heart and mind the vision of a relationship so vastly unfamiliar among most men that my spiritual imagination became (and for the most part still remains) desperately consumed in seeking it for myself as well.
Enoch: “He walked with God”.
I suppose I could go into a long dissertation providing insight into the life behind these four words for there’s much to be said, but I won’t, they are what they are and have been appropriately selected to say what they say, and it remains for me to learn the “relationship” associated with these same four words that they too might become for me a true an appropriate witness.
