THE PEOPLE IN THE BEGINNING: ENOCH

The gravestone belonging to Mel Blanc, the voice of Porky Pig, is emblazoned with the famous quote, “That’s all folks!”

Martin Luther King’s crypt features the words, “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty I'm Free at last.”

Merv Griffin’s marker reads, “I will NOT be right back after this message.”

If Enoch had needed a grave marker (he didn’t), it might have read, “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:22).

Enoch’s entire biography is recorded in a half-dozen verses. We’re told that he was the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah. “After he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:22).

Enoch faithfully walked in humble and holy communion with God. Never tasting death, Enoch was simply snatched away, raptured, transported to Heaven. “Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him” (Genesis 5:24).

In the unspoiled Garden of Eden, Adam had walked with God (Genesis 3:8). Later, “Noah … a righteous man … walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). Paul commands his readers to “walk worthy” … “walk in love” … “walk as children of Light” … and “walk – not as unwise people but as wise” (Ephesians 4:1; 5:1, 8, 15).

Elsewhere in the Bible, we’re commanded to walk with God. “The Lord requires of you to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). “What does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul?”(Deuteronomy 10:12).

Paul, faithful to the end, wrote his own epitaph. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7–8). Paul didn’t just walk… he ran.

What will your headstone say? “Here lie the remains of … he/she walked with God.”

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).