Standing in the midst of the National Cemetery in Little Rock, I gazed at the massive field of white crosses. There were many — and now another was to be added. At one time these bodies lived and breathed, but no longer. Each one kept an appointment. “It is destined for man to die once” (Hebrews 9:27).

To the natural eye it seems so final. We mourn, but that is all we can do. We are powerless before the grave, the house appointed for all living.

“Never the grave gives back what it has won,” says Schiller’s line from Funeral Fantasy. But this is not true at all!

Once there was a man who cried out. “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen, and a cloth around his face” (John 11:43-44).

The man who called forth the dead died Himself on a Roman cross. But when He died, “the tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people” (Matthew 27:52-53). Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He said it, and He proved it.

Graves are not as permanent as they seem, “…for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out — those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29).

There is One who has grave opening power!

Many have examined the evidence and have declared, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” Do you? ~~ John Gibson, Little Rock, AR