Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James 4:14
In a grocery store one day, we met the wife of a friend of mine, and during our conversation, asked her how my friend was. Her answer shocked us to no end; Doug was dead! He was killed in a motorcycle accident. Stunned, I went back in my mind to the times I had spent with this young man, programming classes we had shared, visits at each others’ homes, and even the times when we travelled together to our classes. He never seemed to mind the difference in our ages, and we struck up a good friendship. He was a vibrant young man, with a bit of a rebellious edge, with a lovely young wife and two small boys, and he had only just begun a new career that had good pay and plenty of opportunities to advance as far as he wanted to go. And now, he was gone! His death struck a heavy blow, and drove home to my soul the truth of today’s text. It is a valuable lesson to learn, because this life is not what we are all about.
Someone once said that this life is just a vestibule to enter our eternal existence. That reminds me of the first time we visited the Storyland park in New Hampshire. Inside the entrance were several small rides and attractions, and some pens with some interesting animals. The children enjoyed these things immensely, but my wife made the observation that it didn’t seem to be worth the money we had paid. I grinned as we made our way to a set of gates, and as we stepped through, she saw the many large rides and other attractions that were there. That was the last time she complained about the price. So it will be with us. We get our complaints and worries and work and trials here in this life, but when we step into eternity, we will see that everything we passed through in this life was worth it all. We cannot comprehend the magnitude of eternity, and often give it the perspective of time, which we can understand. Our little vapour of life here is so short, so fragile. And yet, how we live this fleeting life determines our level of reward in eternity. Because this life is so short, let us endure well for Christ, knowing that the best is yet to come.
Our text’s reminder of the brevity of time is also a call for us to be burdened for those around us who don’t have any hope for eternity. They have such little time to hear and respond to the Gospel. This is our opportunity to tell them, to present the glorious invitation of our Lord to have them spend eternity in His joyful presence. That is why one of the key message of the Gospel is that now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).
If we can understand how short our life is, we will properly appreciate eternity’s length, eternity’s values, and the urgency of the Gospel. -Jim MacIntosh