Gone, But Not Forgotten?

Rosita, Colorado

The Rosita Cemetery, just south of Westcliffe, Colorado, dates back to 1870. The headstones are not neatly ordered in rows, but scattered around the pine trees and the rolling hills in this semi-ghost town. Rosita was a mining town and attracted people from the east who thought they could strike it rich. Even a Union Civil War veteran is buried in this cemetery.

If you enlarge the picture of the white tombstone you might be able to read that buried here is Frank E. Williams who died at the age of 22 years, 4 months and 18 days. That's all we know about Frank. Interestingly enough his headstone also reads, "Gone but not forgotten."

A Google search on his name pulled up many Frank Williams, but nothing about a Frank E. Williams buried in Rosita, Colorado. It appears that he has been forgotten.

I have walked through many cemeteries. Under each headstone is a person with a story. But as days turn into months and months into years those stories fade. This side of the grave, we will not be remembered.

Enter Romans 8.

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39 English Standard Version

I often read this passage at funerals. The truth of this passage comforts those of us who continue to live out our stories here and now. We might not be remembered by future generations, but God will never forget us. Death cannot separate us from God's love.

Jesus suffered separation from God as the guarantee that you would never be separated from this love. In Christ, you are never forgotten.

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(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012-2014 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.