But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10
Most of us have at least heard of the Big Bang, the supposed start of our universe, according to the guys who call themselves scientists. They are right about one thing, there actually is a Big Bang on the calendar. But it comes at the end, not the beginning, of time. Our verse tells us it will be part of the great wrapup event called the Day of the Lord.
We like to have some permanent things around us. We know our cars will last only a few years, but we hope our house lasts for a few decades, or more. We have a few pieces of furniture and a few books that are special because they have been with us for most of our lives. We might even have a few possessions that were handed down to us from somebody in a previous generation. We might give ourselves a bit of a jolt to consider seriously the reality that every one of these things is going to be burned up. Nothing will endure the fire; not your favourite photo album or special chair, not the cottage by the lake or the stone castle on the hill. The fire will wipe it all out someday. If we understood this, we would be a little less grasping of earthly things and a little more appreciative of heavenly things.
I remember as a boy being unable to imagine life coming to an end. But as the years have fled by, the reality of my mortality has become ever more evident. Don’t you feel the same way? This is actually a good thing, because we are for sure going to die someday unless the Lord comes for us first. And the more we realize how temporary this life is, the less we will try to grasp these things that are all going to be fuel for that last great fire. We have a tendency to have favourite things, but we must not love them too well. Former prime minister John Diefenbaker send me a personally autographed book many years ago. The book, a collection of excerpts from Diefenbaker’s speeches, is called Those Things We Treasure . Among the trinkets of my working years as a reporter, that book is one of my prized possessions. And yet, I must give it up one day, as with all of earth’s paraphernalia.
If we are ready to let the things of the world go into the fire, we are ready to grasp more firmly the eternal blessings. -Jim MacIntosh