What a busy time of year here at the Centerville Church of Christ. The ladies had a wonderful Ladies Day with many guests this past Saturday. Thank you to all the ladies for all your work. Looking beyond March, I want you to mark your calendars for April 21st. On this day the Deacons will have a Ministry Fair to show everyone the different ministries there are here and where you may want to be involved. It will give you an opportunity to see where you can do more “Good Works”.

On my last visit back home to Kentucky, I did what I usually try to do a couple of times a year. I visit the cemetery where my grandparents are buried. It is the same cemetery where I have preached many funerals for church members, friends, family members and even a few strangers. It is the cemetery where Renee and I own two plots beside my grandparents where someday she and I will be buried as well.

As I walked around, I noticed again the wide variety of headstones and markers. Some very old and some just placed there. Some of the stones revealed lives cut short by war, some from WWI and WWII and other wars. That thought that is casually known by many is the hard reality that those stones represent the soldiers who gave their shortened lives for our freedoms. The hardest find was the stones marking the graves of children, some who had only lived a year or less. Over in one section there was a small tent, where mourners were gathered around the casket of a missed friend or family member, tears were flowing, and hearts ached over the loss of someone they loved and cherished. Most don’t think about cemeteries very much until death gathers us there. Most only think of them as a representation of death, but the stories and memories that live in them tell greater stories than just loss.