I had just left the graveside of an old friend when I came upon a truck hauling three old cars. I imagined that they were talking, and I listened in:

They were three old cars that were being hauled away. They had rolled their last mile, and now, they were about to take their final parking place. At first they just sat quietly on the back of the truck, but then they began to talk about all the places that they had been, the miles they had traveled; and the people they had carried. Of course there were stories about dents and wrecks and breakdowns.

“Remember when we were new and parked on a sales lot?” The Buick said as his hood trembled in the wind. “Ah yes,” replied the Old Chevy with his bowtie faded and slightly twisted. The Crown Victoria seemed caught up in her own memories. She still missed her old family. They had traveled together to almost every important place and event in the family’s life. For her there was a peace in knowing that she had faithfully fulfilled what she had been created to do.

It is glorious when a saint receives the victorious crown after a faithful life well lived. When the Apostle Paul was nearing the end of life’s highway, he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith…”

Thank God for our old friends who have shared life’s ride with us, and the ones who have given us a lift when the road was too long to walk alone.

As I looked at three old cars that had finished their work; I thought, “They don’t make them like that anymore.” And thinking of our friend who was wearing her new smile, I heard another voice somewhere on a golden street, “Amen.’ SERVANT OF GOD WELL DONE!”