DEVOTION/ Known only to God

A quiet, wooded cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia holds the remains of 121 individuals who drown when the Titanic sank. A U-shaped paved path leads up and back down a low hill with graves on either side.

Titanic graves

Each grave is marked with an unassuming, polished, black granite gravestone. The top is engraved with the person's name and death date. If the drowning victim's family had the resources, they added personal information. Many of those stones include a Scripture verse.

I was particularly struck by the stones of victims who were not identified. "Died. April 15, 1914," they state. A number on the stone is the only way the victim is identified.

Unknown

No one knows whose earthly remains lay beneath those stones. No one, but God.

At first that struck me with intense sadness. Granite gravestones without names.

• No parents or grandparents knew their loved one was buried here.

• No spouse or children ever came here to grieve, cry, and remember.

• No friends or extended family ever placed flowers here.

Only God knows whose bodies rest here.

Yet, fully known

Yet there is no greater comfort for a Christian than to be known by God. No one else's acquaintance matters. Especially when we recognize our Father is the only one to truly know us.

He knows us.

• He knows our sins and failures, our ambitions and delusions, our accomplishments and potential.

• He knows us better than we are known by anyone. He knows us better than we understand ourselves.

• Best of all, he knows us as his infinitely valued, fully forgiven, and eternally adopted children.

He knows us that way

• because he has given us that status.

• because his Son has shared his status with us.

• because his Son has won that status for us through his life here, his death here, his resurrection here.

Known only to God

God knows and loves us.

• No matter how negatively we might think of ourselves.

• No matter how ashamed we are of ourselves.

• No matter how unworthy of God's love we realize we are.

• No matter.

God knows us as people who will never be less than his loved ones.

A worthy epitaph

Known only to God. An epitaph worthy of the tombstone of every Christian.

Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12).

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For more about these graves at Fairview Lawn Cemetery tap here.