A House in Order

A House in Order

“A good name is better than precious ointment,

and the day of death than the day of birth.”

-Ecclesiastes 7:1 (ESV)

If I could know my day of death,

The time when life’s curtain parts,

Would I be more apt for the journey,

Be ready in body and heart?

Or would I rue my days at their end,

No more sunrises, sunsets to see?

Would I want to cling to earth’s dark shore

Instead of crossing to celestial lea?

Have I built here to leave behind

A monument of sorts,

A good name better than costly ointment,

And good deeds of my life’s reports?

I’ll leave these judgments to others,

And especially to the Lord God of hosts

Who will meet me and journey with me

To my place in His heavenly post.

Knowing when to depart is not troublesome,

Nor is its uncertainty a cause for alarms.

For when the Lord is ready for me to go

He will bear me lovingly in His arms.

-Ethelene Dyer Jones

July 10, 2014

I wrote this poem July 10, 2014, over 4 and ½ years ago. We had a saying in the mountains where I grew up (beautiful Choestoe Valley, located on the Nottely River, “between Enotah Bald and Blood mountains, the two highest peaks in Georgia): “Get your house in order; because no one knows the day of his departure from this earth.” It sounds like a gruesome saying, one that makes one very aware of death and departing earthly life. But actually, this adage gives sound advice, because it helps to keep persons “on task.” Good housekeeping was an earmark of a godly woman, the “lady in charge of the household.” She kept the house in order, good food prepared three times a day and served attractively’; her children clean and well dressed and in school, and. To emphasize again: “her house in order.” This is good spiritual advice, too, for we ought also to keep “confessed up,” “jobs done up,” and ”attuned to the Lord God” who made us and who will call us to our heavenly home when our work on earth is finished. Is your house in order? Are you ready to “meet the Lord” in glory? Food for spiritual thought. - Ethelene Dyer Jones. March 24, 2019