Graves Labeled Wrong At Arlington?

Just when you thought it was ‘physically' safe to go into the grave, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri reported in her testimony at a recent hearing that conservative estimates may now reveal that 4,900 to 6,600 graves may be unmarked, improperly marked, or mislabeled on the maps at Arlington National Cemetery.

The present estimate far exceeds the one given last month by Army investigators who examined a small section of Arlington. At that point they found some 211 remains that could have been involved in the mix-up. But McCaskill stated, "We now know that the problems with graves at Arlington may be far more extensive than previously acknowledged. This is not complicated. It is called keeping track of who you bury where.” The number surfaced at a hearing where former cemetery officials were accused of incompetence, ignorance, fraud, and lax management of the cemetery on the paper records to manage the burial sites.

As awful and troubling as it would be to find that the resting place of a loved one’s remains is incorrectly labeled and perhaps irretrievably lost, the soul that was once housed in it is anything but missing to God. That can be the very best of all possible things or the very worst thing humanly imaginable.

The Apostle Paul, in his great doctrinal epistle to the early church at Rome, wrote in chapter fourteen, “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: "As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:11-12)

The human body is important while alive because it is loved by both God and man, but more so because it is the literal temple of the Holy Spirit for believers. (1 Corinthians 6:14) But it is the spiritual element of any person that is ultimately crucial, eternal, and responsible before God. The writer of Hebrews, like Paul, also made it clear that the physical body is not the primary issue to God when he wrote, ”And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13)

When the physical body declines and eventually becomes a thing of the past, the human soul that dwelled there will live on as long as will the God who created both. Those in Christ, through personal faith, will someday stand confidently before their Creator. His Savior Son will act as their personal and fully victorious defender against the terrible and long-term consequnces of human sin. John reveals this great truth in 1 John 2:1-2 when he writes, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

Those who ignore or reject God's free offer of Christ's eternal representation, and the resulting redemption it brings, will someday sense the unimaginable fear and horror as those described by John in Revelation Rev 6:15- 17. “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

Earthly graves may occasionally get mixed up, moved, with their precious cargo eventually returning to literal dust as the Scriptures affirm. But aside from the understandable sense of loss on a human level, entering into the ground at life's end need not be feared by those who are secure in Christ. They can never be lost. (John 10:28) Their soul, after they draw their final breath, will be ushered instantly into the joyful presence of their God and Savior and will remain there for all eternity. That is, and should be, the blessed hope of every true child of God! (Titus 2:13)

The words of the apostle confirms the ultimate peace every Christian can know when that apponited and victorious moment arrives. "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Bill Breckenridge