Will You Be Remembered?

A Funeral Meditation

Please consider two questions today. The first is “Will you be remembered when you die?” The second is “What will be remembered about your life?” There is a reason for this reflection as I prepare for the pieces of my own funeral.

This is the ten-year anniversary of the 2015 death of my mom, Shirley May Winquist. There are still family and friends who remember mom, but the number is diminishing, year after year. Some of our grandchildren never really knew their great grandmother. Others probably have vague memories. I remember her as a loving mother who had confidence that God would keep his promises and remember her.

Being Remembered

Some people are remembered because of their contributions to society or because they were notorious villains. It is unlikely that Adolf Hitler will be forgotten. It is also unlikely that Elvis Presley will soon be forgotten or that our nation will forget Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr. However, most of the billions of people who have lived or who are living will not be remembered beyond one or two generations.

How To Be Remembered: Repentant

Certainly very few want to be remembered the way Adolf Hitler is remembered. He was a mass-murderer and hated people who did not conform to his distorted views of humans. Sadly, he did not escape from this life into a better existence. He was very unlike one of the thieves on the cross who decided there was hope to be found in Jesus. Jesus effectively said, “you will be with me…I will remember you.”

“And he (the thief) said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” Luke 23:42-43

Although it appeared to most that Jesus was not the King and that he would not reign, the thief thought otherwise. We don’t know everything that convinced him of this, but he did rebuke the second thief in the same passage: “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’” Luke 23:39-41 If you slow down and read what he said carefully, you will learn a great deal of theology.

What Mom Believed

She believed that she would be remembered because she had confidence, trust, and full assurance in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Her confidence, trust, and reliance were based on something Jesus said to his disciples. He said he would remember them and take them to be with him in a place he prepared for them. Jesus was effectively saying, “I won’t forget you after I depart.”

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:1-7

How The Story Ends

God remembers the promises he made throughout the scriptures. This is declared in the final book of the New Testament, penned by the Apostle John. He saw something that reminded him that God remembers his bride. He remembers those who saw Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” Revelation 21:1-4

How will your story end? Will you be remembered by God? Don’t rush past that question too quickly.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.