Hill of Sorrows
“Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may surely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” Genesis 2:16-17
The early summer of 2023 while cycling back country roads, I came upon a cemetery hidden in the farmland hills of Idaho. Located a third of a mile off a windy country road. A beautiful hilltop location with panoramic views surrounded by farmland as far as you can see. This place dated back to the 1800's.
The Realization
As I walked from headstone to headstone reading weather-worn inscriptions, I began to notice something unexpected. Etched in stone, some barely readable, you could make-out the date of birth and the date of death. Moving from one sight to another I was struck with the realization, these are children, many children. It griped my heart.
Some of the children lived for less than a day. Others it was a matter of months and yet others from one year to six, seven, twelve years and teens. Of the 75 or so scattered sights, children accounted for half or more. And with the children, were many twenty and thirty year old wives and husbands. Tears welled up as a realization settle in, this place was more than a mere beautiful location, it was a hill of sorrows.
Echo's From The Past
I wondered, how many tears of Mom's and Dad's, husband's and wife's had fallen to the lush green grass growing around each headstone? It was not hard to imagine the sounds, the cries of grief and loss from so long ago. Perhaps many who gathered on this hill mourned with a sense of helplessness, because one they loved was torn from them. Painful inscriptions could be read. Words that conveyed agonizing sorrow, the deep hurt of those left behind. Standing there, that warm summer day, the finality of death and the sense of loss was impossible to avoid.
While taking in what I was seeing, thoughts filled my mind. Why ... why such sorrow? Seeing how death touched those early in life, even many many children. But, I knew the answer. I knew it all to well. This place in the midst of such beautiful surroundings, was necessary because of sin. "Just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12). It was sin that made this place, a hill of sorrows, necessary.
Humbling and Convicting
How busy we are, wrapped up in everyday stuff, paying no attention to death and the reality of it. It was sobering waking on that hill, it reminded me of the seriousness of what every person knows is unavoidable. As Christians, we must shake off the complacency and take "Christ Jesus, our hope" (1 Timothy 1:1), to the many who are living now. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). "Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:10).
That moment in that place, was humbling and convicting. People need to hear why they will die in their sin, that death is real and unavoidable. Yet they can be forgiven in Jesus. He is our hope. I could only wonder, as to how many people buried on that hill died with hope and those who died without.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3
