A mist, a handbreadth, and a flower
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. — James 4:14
September seems to have ended too soon. For Filipinos, September is a mark of the beginning of a much-awaited season, Christmas time.
We have just been looking forward to this when the COVID lockdown started. And now we are all watching it come to a close. There is nothing new to this. We have watched hours, days, months and years come by. Realizing that time just slipped away, we’d asked ourselves, “Where did time go?”
Where did time go?
Time passes by. Life passes by. Days gather into weeks, weeks to months, months to years. And before we knew it we are at the end of the race. Where did time go? — the question that accurately expresses the bittersweet ache of our hearts that affirms the declaration found all over the Scriptures — that our life is a mist (James 4:14), our days are mere handbreadth (Psalm 39:5), we wither and we fall as the grass withers and the flowers fall (Isaiah 40:6–7).
We are made for eternity
Confronting this reality is opening us to up to a deeper reality, a longing for eternity.
We are mists, with days a mere handbreadth, and like a flower, we will fall, yet we are eternal creatures made to last forever.
The cry of hearts for significance, greater beauty, greater comfort, and joy, and the idea of forever is sure evidence that we are made to last forever. We are made for a life beyond this. That what we see and grasp in our brief life is not all there is to life.
Eternity is true and sure for all of us. What that eternity will look like depends on what we’ll do with our brief time on earth. Where and with Whom we are going to spend eternity, rest on whether or not we are willing to trust the One who has placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
The promise of a greater tomorrow
The brevity of life, the passing time, and the reality of eternity are God’s gracious reminders and pointers for us to live life wisely and purposefully. And how do we know how to do that? We seek to know the One who has authored eternity, the everlasting God (Psalm 90:2). We are to seek the One who authored time but has chosen to be bound by it so that He can walk with us and reveal Himself to us so that we might know Him and spend forever with Him.
Let us be conscious of the truth that tomorrow in this life is never promised but Jesus, through His death has purchased for us the promise of a greater tomorrow. A tomorrow beyond this lifetime, a promise of eternal life with Him.
Our brief time on earth is a reminder that all of this is temporary and that nothing in this world or in our life could ever complete us and fulfill us. And God in His wisdom wrote eternity in our hearts so that we may know Him. Our heart’s ache for eternity is a desire for Jesus, the only one who can truly and fully satisfy us from everlasting to everlasting.
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. — John 17:3
Jumpstart a life well-lived
The invitation to all of us now is to number our days (Psalm 90:12). Jesus will teach us. Let us seek Him and abide in Him. Let us spend our brief time with what will matter for eternity. Let us invest our time with eternity in mind. God has given us fresh little beginnings. As we welcome October, may the dawn of the new month jumpstart our quest for a faithfully spent and unwasted life that echoes through eternity, for the glory and honor of Jesus.
Discussion Questions:
- To what purpose has God been calling you to spend your life?
- What consumes your time today?
- Is there something God has been calling you to give up doing in order for you to have more time for what truly matters?