I'm old. Yes, the calendar attests and my bones are in agreement; the mirror mocks and watches me shrinkle and wrinkle - but my surest sign is I read the obituaries in the paper every day. Youth turns those pages with nary a thought. Age stops to peruse and ponder the inevitable. We're all heading for our two or three days on one of those pages. What will be said of us?

Some obituaries are very short in length and detail, and even knowing there can be various reasons for sparseness, you're left to wonder "is that all to be said for this person's life?" Others are the opposite with a preponderance of the information detailing a vast array of achievement. But the best and the beautiful (my bias admitted) are those which speak openly of the person's faith in Jesus Christ and the impact they had on all who knew them. I hope my two or three days on one of those pages will have such a testimony.

On this site a couple weeks ago the great King Josiah made an appearance. His walk with God was so contagious the people couldn't help but catch it. Do you remember this part of Josiah's obituary? "So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day all the singing men and singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel; and indeed they are written in the Laments. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to what is written in the Law of the Lord, and his deeds from first to last, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah." (II Chronicles 35:24-27) Even here, two and a half millennia later, Josiah's good life is still being written about.

Chapter twenty-one of the same book talks of another king - Jehoram -who was thirty two when he became king, reigned for eight years, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he died "to no one's sorrow" and that is the summation of this man's life.

Our two of three days will be here sooner or later. Will we be as Josiah who lived a good life wonderfully touching so many with the love of God, then be wistfully missed and warmly remembered for generations? Or will we live a self-centered wasted life and die to no one's sorrow?

What will be said of us?