Visit to Mount Vernon

First Family,

Over President's Day weekend, my family joined thousands of other tourists in visiting Mount Vernon. It is a magnificent property and undoubtedly an important location for historical conservation.

During the home tour, you get to explore various rooms while listening to the stories of the people who stayed in them. The highlight of the tour is visiting the room that George and Martha once shared. It is also the room where George Washington died. Not only do you get to see the room, but you also get to see the very bed in which he took his last breath. The historian who was guiding the tour also noted that Martha later died on May 22. May 22 happens to be my birthday. My three kids marveled at these details and continue to remind me that Martha died on my birthday. "Dad, they said, 'Martha died on your birthday'.”

As you leave the house and explore the farm, we all feel a sense of sadness brought about by the conversation of death. As you continue your journey through the estate, you then have the opportunity to visit the tomb where both George and Martha Washington are buried.

You are encouraged to approach the tomb in silence with respect for the dead. With flags on the right and left of the gated entrance you lean in and find the stone sarcophagi of George Washington and Martha. However, to my joy and my surprise you see chiseled in stone the words from John 11:25, spoken by Jesus: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."

Suddenly everything changed! What was once a heavy and sad moment of reverence was transformed by hope. Being reminded of the resurrection of Jesus when we are confronted with death changes the mood. Job in the Bible once asked, “If a man dies, will he live again?” The Biblical answer is, YES, through faith in Christ. Jesus gives us great hope and joy that even death cannot steal.

Servant for HIS glory,
Pastor Robert