Death is Certain (Memento Mori)

The 'Memento Mori' (Remember Death) trope has been visited countless times thus our apprehension in approaching it as a theme for some time. "Death is Certain" is based off a graphic we came across (author/maker unknown) and the first of a series.  There is a time to be born and a time to die (Ecclesiastes 3:2).  The latter, a physical death is a certainty in life.  "Contrast that simplicity with what you would’ve seen on your way into this building. You would’ve passed through a churchyard full of gravestones carved with elaborate, sometimes jarring images. These stones survive as one of early America’s most popular and powerful art forms. To modern tastes, the images often border on grotesque. There are skulls flanked by wings, skeletons holding scythes, and perhaps most commonly, hourglasses running out of time. These stones aimed for your imagination. They meant to make death sensible. On some of the stones you’d probably find two Latin words etched among the images: memento mori. Roughly translated, the phrase means “remember death.” With these stones, as well as in their sermons and a range of practical writings, the Puritans were drawing from an old Christian tradition that sought to bring the perspective of death into everyday life. I don’t mean preparation for one’s own death, though that too was a time-honored tradition. I mean the perspective that death as unshakeable reality brings to life in the meantime. Death-awareness came easily for these Puritans. Life expectancy then was less than half what it is for Americans now. And where most deaths today occur in medical facilities cordoned off from where we live, they died in their homes, in the same rooms where other family members slept in their beds or ate their meals or read their books."  "Recognizing the relevance of death every day is how we recognize the relevance of Jesus every day, too." TGC Other truths to ponder.... "Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him."  - 2 Timothy 2:11 For those who's trust and faith is not in Jesus, there is the 2nd death. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." - Matthew 10:28 "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." - Revelation 21:8 Also see The Standard of the Duke of Monmouth / The Valley 3x2" Woven Hook Backing Release: 2/28/23 *Data is preliminary and subject to change