As I walked through the historic pioneer cemetery in our town, I noticed a small placard resting at the base of a large tree. The placard was only a few inches in size. I walked over to the tree and read the notes on the placard. It was about a man named Samuel B. Simmons who was born in 1878 and died in 1926. By the size of the tree, I guessed it was only a small tree when the man died and when the placard was placed at his gravesite. After almost one hundred years, the tree has pushed the placard aside as the tree grew.

There is quite a difference between the little weathered metal placard placed on Mr. Simmon’s grave as a courtesy marker from the funeral home for those who were not able to afford something larger and more formal death displays. While the small placard seems small and insignificant it serves the same purpose as a gravesite having a person’s day of birth and death chiseled in an elaborate display of granite. Both simply record times of life and death.

David wrote in the Psalms, “O Lord, don’t forget me. (Psalm 9:13). The Lord never forgets us no matter what our lives look like or how people choose to remember our lives. What matters is not where or how we are remembered. What matters is how the Lord remembers us even if in this life we may not stand out as a memorable person or have our death marked by the artistry of a beautiful stone sitting atop our grave.

The world will not always honor a life of faith, but God will. He will never forget what we did for Him in this life. Our future, the life after this one, is where the true marker of our lives exists. They are markers of resurrection, not a marker noting the placement of a dead body. That’s why an earthly marker of our life and its placement is of little importance compared to what is to come.