Working on Gravestone

We have been working with Norm's cousin on Matthew's gravestone and how we want it to look. We thought we had it pretty much settled, and then started showing the children. Like I mentioned in my last post, seeing it "etched in stone" makes the reality more real, once again. Seeing that birth AND death date, hits at the heart. But we were surprised by one of our boys last night. Jayson (15.5) saw the design and really liked it. But then he began questioning how big it was going to be compared to Angela's little gravestone. Hers is just a small flat light pink-toned marker. Simple. We were planning on having Matthew's a little bigger, mainly so we could fit more wording on, yet still flat, with a slight tilt to it. Gravestones are expensive. The one we are planning on is over $600 and this is a "low cost" one. We had a friend over at the time too, when we were talking about this, and Jayson called me aside, and with tears in his eyes pleaded to have something bigger for his brother, that can be seen more, and may some other Bible verse on it. I told him that financially, we just cannot do that, and he said he has $300 saved up and he'd be willing to give us that to get more of a stand up type. He really wants this. It just touched Norm's and my hearts so much. It's not that he wants a "material" thing, but really wants his loved brother remembered. Prayfully Jayson and his siblings will visit this cemetary many years after we are gone, and he will be able to tell his children about Matthew and the many wonderful memories. We still are not exactly sure what we are going to do, and have to personally visit the monument company to see the variety, and what we can do, and Jayson especially wants to go. It just touched our hearts.

What we have planned so far, is of course, Matthew's full name, birth/death dates, and we have two lines from the MercyMe song, "I Can Only Imagine"on it (here are the words to the song) . Matthew does not "imagine" anymore, so we are using "Surrounded by God's Glory" and "Forever Worshipping Him". You can see our "rough draft" but it's a little fuzzy but you can get the general idea.

It's been neat though to see our children involved, and probably part of the healing, and working with us on this.

On January 23, just a week after our boys' truck accident, our pastor spoke from Joshua 24, and the 27th verse really stuck out to me, and I marked in my Bible and "claimed" after their accident, also goes along with "Matthew's story":

"Joshua said to all the people,
'Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us,
for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us;
thus it shall be for a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.' "

I thought often of this verse after the boys' accident, and how God's mercy and grace let them not only live, yet come out remarkably well. We have so much to thank God for. Then, as I mentioned before there was just an accident at the same corner, and several were killed. We go by this intersection to and from church, and see the crosses and flowers there now in memory of those that were killed. After our pastor shared this verse and spoke of it, I wished we could put a big billboard up there, giving God the glory for saving their lives - our "stone as a witness". But, now with working on Matthew's gravestone, it's another type of witness, which he would want, and we certainly want. Despite all that has happened, we won't deny God. Matthew's stone will be as a witness until God makes the new earth.