Intimations of mortality

I liked "The Glory of Church Graveyards," from which:

Every couple of months, I go for a walk around our church graveyard. I have called it a cemetery for the longest time, but it’s actually a graveyard. Graveyards are connected to a church. Cemeteries are not. ....

The fact is, we in America rarely think of our own mortality, especially if we are young. We kind of know in the back of our minds that we will die someday, but it’s still a long way off, right? Wrong. .... So every day when I see that graveyard, I am reminded I will die and that causes me to consider my life and value what is important. It causes me to make my life about the right things and not waste it. ....

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

The church graveyard is that cloud of witnesses. .... The church graveyard is a cloud of witnesses telling those in Christ that are still living to keep going. ....

Church graveyards are not a sign the church is dying. There is much glory in them. (more)

The picture is of the churchyard of the Salem, WV, Seventh Day Baptist Church.

Aaron Frasier, "The Glory of Church Graveyards," For the Church, Nov. 29, 2022.