By Verna Davis
For The Herald Bulletin
FRANKTON, Ind. —
Ever wish you had the last word? Maybe you yearn for the last word in an argument. “I told you I was right. If only you had listened to me, you wouldn’t be in the mess you’re in right now. So, there!”
Ever wish you could supply your opponent the last word in an argument? “All right. Since you seem to desire the last word so much, let me give you the last words of this argument. Just say, ‘Yes, dear. You were right.’ That’s the only last word I want to hear you say. So, there!”
Ever wish you knew what some people were thinking just before they uttered their last words? “Are you sure the power is off?” “Don’t worry. I’ve seen this done on TV.” “I’ll hold it while you light the fuse.” “Golly, I wonder where the mother bear is.” “I can do this with my eyes closed.” “Does anyone know what will happen if I push this button?” “Nice doggie.” “Hey, Bubba. Watch this!”
Ever wonder just how bad that wallpaper was in that French hotel where Oscar Wilde died? Bad enough for his last words to be, “Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.”
What kind of advice (and to whom was the advice given) when Al Capone said, just before his fatal heart attack, “You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone?”
Last words are somehow important to us. They make us think we have won the argument. That we are smarter, wittier, more in control, and just plain better than just about anybody else. Last words make us feel superior; last words are uttered so that there is no question about our superiority. Last words mean, “So, there. There’s nothing more to say, for I have said it all.” Kaput. End of discussion. Th-th-that’s all, folks. So, there!
In John 14:1-3, Jesus spoke some of His last words on earth to the 12 disciples and words that are also meant for Jesus’ disciples today.
He said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
But one of my favorite “last word” passages of Jesus gives me courage to face the toughest things life can throw my way, and the hope that forms the faith I can survive anything that comes at me.
In John 16:33, Jesus says, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Hey, Satan! Listen up!! Just how do you like those last words??? So, there!!!!
Verna Davis, author and speaker, lives and writes in Frankton. She can be reached at Vrdspeaks@yahoo.com
