Hebrews 9:27 "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment..."
Have you ever had an important appointment? Perhaps you were scheduled to meet an important person. Someone like a potential employer or banker who might hold the keys to your professional or financial future. Success or failure may hinge upon the outcome. Days of struggle or times of leisure may rest upon the result.
But the importance of the one vital appointment we all have with the common denominator of all men, death, and with Jesus Christ, the Judge of this universe, makes all such mundane matters pale into relative insignificance. If we will be realistic about it, we will admit we are approaching the day of that appointment at what seems to be lightning speed. We are relentlessly rushing headlong into the future at a breakneck pace. Considering this, it might be good to remember a few things.
We should always remember that life, even at its longest, is short. The Psalmist says that life is like a sleep. A good night’s sleep seems to pass as a swift breeze. He also says that our life is like grass that flourishes in the morning, but is cut down, and withers in the scorching heat of a sunny afternoon. At one moment we may be jovial, vigorous, happy and hopeful. The next we may be pale, cold, speechless and lifeless. He also compares life to a tale that is told. A really good story told be an accomplished story teller is almost always over before it begins.
As we consider our future appointment, let us also remember that death is certain. It is an appointment we all must keep. In giving the genealogy of the antediluvian patriarchs, the phrase, "and he died," is repeated nine times. It matters not how long man shall live it will always be said of him, "and he died."
As sure as we live, we die. Whether we like it or not or are prepared for it or not, that sure visitor knocks at the door of the humble or the haughty, the beggar or the billionaire. He visits the humblest hovel or the highest house on the hill of wealth.
Death may be a close as a stray bullet or the bumper guard of a speeding car. It may be lying in the luggage compartment of an air plane. It is as close as a malignant cell. It is only one heartbeat away. One piece of foreign matter in the blood stream or one submicroscopic deadly virus or bacteria may be the means by which we ultimately meet our demise.
Yet, death tends to catch many unaware. Raphael died with his last picture half finished. It was carried in his funeral procession as a mute reminder of life’s brevity. Sir Walter Scott’s penned these last words in his journal, "Tomorrow I shall..." Franz Schulbert left his unfinished symphony. When he was 89 years of age Micheangelo wrote, "I have reach the twenty-fourth hour of my day and no project arises in my brain which hath not the figure of death graven upon it"
As someone has well said we should, "In time, take time, while time does last, for time is not time, when time is past." And as some else once said, "Lost, some place between yesterday and tomorrow, one day, made up of twenty-four precious hours, each filled with sixty golden minutes, which are studded with sixty diamond seconds. No reward is offered, they are gone forever!"
If we truly understand the brevity of life we will attempt to seize the day for the Lord. We will understand that we should grasp opportunity by the forelock, because he is bald behind! A thought worth remembering: "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. - Pastor John White
