Me: You took off like two hound dogs backed into a porquipine.

Prodigal: I just wanted to get a closer look.

Me: Now that we are closer, let’s sit a spell.

This is from the book The Applause of Heaven by Max Lucado

An interesting story surrounded the burial of Roman emperor Charlemagne. Legend has it that he asked to be entombed sitting upright in his throne. He asked that his crown be placed on his head and his scepter in his hand. He requested that the royal cape be draped around his shoulders and an open book be placed in his lap.

That was A.D. 814. Nearly two hundred years later, Emperor Orthello determined to see if the burial request had been carried out. He allegedly sent a team of men to open the tomb and make a report. They found the body just as Charlemagne had requested. Only now, nearly two centuries later, the scene was gruesome. The crown was tilted, the mantle moth-eaten, the body disfigured. But open on the skeletal thighs was the book Charlemagne had requested–the Bible. One bony finger pointed to Matthew 16:26. “What good will if be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org