The Best is Yet to Come

Why would someone be buried with a fork in their suit coat pocket? When the mourners came to the casket at the wake, they were more than puzzled to find a fork prominently displayed in his suit coat pocket. Was this a restaurant owner or a food critic, or perhaps a bit of belated humor? I heard this story in church the other day—true story. A member passed away who was a dear friend of church potlucks. Whenever the servers would come by to clear his plate they would always tell him to keep his fork. After a while he figured it out. You keep your fork because there is something more coming, like a great dessert, to close out a wonderful meal. So he was fond of remembering to keep his fork because something better is coming. Toward the end of his life, this potluck proviso became a spiritual reality. This faithful congregant came to realize that the next life—the one we are all heading to, holds eternal, limitless possibilities for those who have discovered faith in Jesus Christ. I go to prepare a place for you, Jesus said, a place of celebration, restoration, a feast of endless proportions, where all things are made right. A place you can only call heaven. Sort of like the dessert part of living. So this man of Christian faith asked to be buried with a fork in his pocket to symbolize to all those who would see his remains, that he died believing that in Christ the best is yet to come. C.S. Lewis was fond of saying there are no normal people. Everyone we bump into is in fact immortal—a living soul that will spend a place in eternity. We all will live forever—the question is where?