THEY CAME, THEY SAW, THEY READ

This is encouraging!

"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John 11:25-26 KJV)

Those words are on a plaque inside Washington's Tomb on Mt. Vernon. I've seen them, but up until that time two years ago, I never knew they were there. (Um . . . has something been blocked from my education? Why was I never told?)

I got to wondering, "Who else has seen those words on that plaque in the tomb of one of the greatest men in American or world history?" Who's read that text from the Gospel of John inscribed at Mt. Vernon.

In 1860, all the members of Congress gathered at Mt. Vernon at the tomb, so they read it.

On October 5 of that same year, President James Buchanan and the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the British press read the words.

Jumping to 1916, inventor Thomas Edison came to the tomb and saw the plaque.

Then a "first" occurred: in 1939, King George VI became the first ruling British monarch to come to America made it a point to go to Mt. Vernon, so he read the verses.

Then, from that great year of 1942, there's a picture of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill standing in front of the tomb and the plaque with the verses is visible behind them.

Then, another first: in 1943, it was the first time that a Chinese national addressed the Congress, as well as the first time the body had been addressed by a private citizen. Additionally, she was just the second woman to address both houses of the American Congress--she was Madame Chiang Kai-shek and her visit to the tomb on February 22, 1943, occurred on George Washington’s 211th birthday.

In 1944, Charles de Gaulle came from France and made his pilgrimage to the tomb. Although not a household name today, Saudi Crown Prince Amir Saud visited in 1947.

President and Mrs. George Bush went to Mt. Vernon in 2007 and in 2015 Charles, Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall paid their tributes to Washington.

As far as I know, none of the above rich, famous, and powerful remarked on the text from John 11. If they did, their thoughts weren't recorded for posterity.

Then, of course, there are the people like you and me, the average folks, who've been there and taken off their hats and caps to the great man and read Jesus' words on the plaque.

It's encouraging to read of those who've read Jesus' promise at Mt. Vernon. I wonder about the small and the great who've been there: did they think about those words? Did those words trigger them to search the Scriptures. Who knows? 

But one thing we do know: one day, we'll all be standing before the One who spoke them. There will be those who heeded His words and trusted Him and what He said (II Cor. 5:10) and then later, those who didn't.

Like John said, "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne . . . (Revelation 20:12).