Love Etched In Stone

When our father passed away, my sister and I went to choose a monument to be placed in our family plot. When the drawing was put in front of us, we knew that Dad had begun the designing of his own gravestone long before his death as our eyes fell to the emblem from the university where he had earned his business degree, etched on the front. From there, we filled the empty space with remembrance of Dad’s service to our country during the  Korean War, the dates of his birth and death, and my children’s loving nickname for him—Grandpa Bob.

Gravestone etchings tell us so little about someone’s years. There would never be enough room on a gravestone to tell the whole story of our dad’s life. He was more than a man who lived for 82 years, served in the United States Army, and proudly graduated from his state university. He was also a wonderful father, a caring son, a true friend, and a hard worker.

God commissioned Moses to etch words into stone, telling us how we should live our life on earth because of His love for us and desire to see us enjoy good days:

He proclaimed the laws you must obey—the Ten Commandments—and wrote them on two stone tablets. Deuteronomy 4:13

Human nature seeks independence and caters to selfish desires that will end in destruction. If we do not know the nature of God, the Commandments seem burdensome.  But His desire for us is to have loving relationships with our parents, our spouse, and our neighbors. He wants us to live in freedom, able to spend our time in enjoyable ways, and He wants us to be content and thankful with what we have, free of jealous envy towards others.  When you really understand the Commandments, you come to understand that they are not burdensome laws to deny you happiness, but love from God, etched in stone.