Voices from the Graveyard

There has always been something surreal about the deafening silence in cemeteries and graveyards. As a teenager growing up in Benin City, one of the major cities in southern Nigeria, my family once lived in an apartment separated from a cemetery by just a street. As nightfall approached, an inexplicable feeling would settle in, and from the balcony of our house, we often witnessed families and friends gathering to bury their loved ones. The silence was so profound that it felt like every soul resting beneath those tombstones had a message for the living.

As I grew older and experienced the pain of losing loved ones and dear friends, I realised that no matter where a cemetery was located, the message remained the same. Every grave seemed to call out to the living, reminding us that there is nothing worth the endless strife, bitterness, envy, or even murder—for in the end, all of it becomes meaningless in the grave.

A few weeks ago, I attended the funeral of a long-time Christian brother and friend at the Gudu Cemetery in Abuja. As I stood among the tombstones, each marking the final resting place of young and old men and women—even innocent children—the voices from the graveyard grew louder. They echoed a single truth: One second after you take your last breath, nothing in this material world will matter anymore. The only thing that will truly count is how you lived and what you did with the life and time God entrusted to you.

As his body was lowered into the earth, I stood beside his grieving wife, watching in solemn silence as the undertakers covered his grave. She waited to place a wreath on the final resting place of the man she had spent fifteen years of her life with. At that moment, the silence in the cemetery was deafening, yet the voices from the graves rang out clearly: Live intentionally. Make peace with your Maker and with all men, as much as it lies within your power. Live each day as though it were your last. Share the goodness of God in your life with those less privileged, for one thing is certain—you brought nothing into this world, and you will take nothing out of it.

Would you be wise enough to heed the voices from the graveyard?

Sharoneez Emephia