Daily Devotionals

Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life

Devotional: September 8th

Near London, Ohio, is a cemetery where my grandfather and grandmother Kelly, my uncle Mike Stevens and my mother and father are buried. Mom and Dad's burial place is the lot on the left. The center is where Granny and Pawpaw are buried. To the right of Granny and Pawpaw is my uncle Mike's grave and another grave. My Aunt Phyllis was to have been buried there. She was the sister of my Dad. Uncle Mike was her husband. However, after Mike died Aunt Phyllis had a couple of guys she married and the last one was the one whose family buried her with him. I think.

Have you ever not been sure who was buried at a family plot? Daniel Boone's relatives have that very problem. They're not sure that Daniel and his wife are buried where they feel like they buried them in September of 1820. You see, Boone had left Kentucky and vowed he would never return. One of the founding fathers of the state, Boone got miffed over a land dispute and swore that he would never come back to Kentucky from Missouri. Some say he didn't while others swear he did.

Boone died in 1820 and was buried near his farm not far from the little town of Charette, Missouri, in accordance with his wishes. In 1845, when the Capital Cemetery Company was looking for a famous American to bury in their brand spanking new cemetery in the state capital of Frankfort, Kentucky they decided on Daniel Boone. He was a perfect fit. With his remains already buried in Missouri they needed the permission of family members to move the remains of both Boone and his wife. Family members in Kentucky were only too happy to oblige.

They went to Boone's farm in Missouri and convinced the new owner to allow them to disinter the remains of the Boones. The graves were poorly marked. While they think they got the right two coffins, no one is really 100 % sure. So the question persists; is Daniel Boone's final resting place Charette, Missouri or Frankfort, Kentucky? No one is truly certain. But consider this; if Boone was a Christian at death it doesn't really matter anyway. His gravesite, whether it is in Charette or Frankfort, is not his FINAL resting place. That address would be heaven.

"Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' " 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 When that happens, either the residents of Frankfort or those of Charette will see Boone again. Then we'll know where he wound up.