KEEP YOUR FORK


A woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only a short time to live contacted her pastor. She told him which songs she wanted sung at her funeral, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.  The woman also requested to be buried with her favorite Bible.  "And there's one more thing," she added. "This is very important.  I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."  The pastor looked at the woman, not knowing quite what to say.

The woman explained.  "In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners,  I remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, 'Keep
your fork.'  Then I knew that something better was coming, like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie. Something wonderful!  So, I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand, and I want them to wonder 'What's with the fork?'  Then I want you to tell them: 'Keep your fork.  The best is yet to come.' "

The pastor's eyes welled up with tears as he hugged the woman goodbye, but he knew that the woman had a better grasp of heaven than he did.  She knew that something better was coming.

At the funeral, people walked by the woman's casket and saw the pretty dress she was wearing.  They noticed the favorite Bible, and then they saw the fork in her right hand.  Over and over, the pastor heard, "What's with the fork?"

During his message, the pastor told the people about his conversation with the woman shortly before she died.  He told them about the fork and about what it symbolized to her.  The pastor told the people how he could not stop thinking about the fork and told them that they probably would not be able to stop thinking about it either.

The next time you reach for your fork, let it remind you, oh so gently, that the best is yet to come.

--Adapted from an anonymous Internet message
 

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Seale United Methodist Church - Seale, Alabama