Ten Thousand Graves

I passed ten thousand graves at least
This month while on the road,
Ten thousand markers of past lives
Which God in grace bestowed.

Some still were kept by loving hands
So fresh and clean and neat,
With flowers near to break the gloom
Where love and sorrow meet.

While most were long forgotten stones
Set up and tended once,
But now decay and other signs
Show they’re neglected since.

And as I passed these solemn stones,
Reminders life is brief,
I sensed a message from the past
That echoed years of grief –

How many graves among all these
Will open on that day
When angels sound the trumpet blast
To call Christ’s bride away?

How few will thus escape the day
When all the rest must rise
To give account before God’s throne
Of unbelieving lives?

I shudder still to see the rows
And think they never heard
That Jesus came to set them free –
Some never had His Word!

Though they rejected light around
In nature’s grand display,
Still Christ deserves to have His Name
Preached everywhere each day.

And thousands more will soon be laid
Beside the others there;
Must they, too, die without true hope,
Without effective prayer?

Lord raise a band of zealous feet
Who eagerly will go
To every corner of this earth
Your saving grace to show.

Lord, here am I. What is Your call?
What would You have me do?
I give my life, my strength, my all
To love and work with You.

Christina Joy Hommes