By Gloria Wessner
Sitting on a rock by an azure blue mountain lake in the early morning, I can enjoy the performance of dancing vapor mists as they constantly change shape and rise above the water. As the sun continues to warm the early morning air, the vapor clouds thin and gradually disappear, giving way to clear mountain air.
Our lives are a lot like that vapor; we’re here on earth for a brief time and then “poof!” – We’re gone. God’s word puts it like this:
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:13, 14 NKJV)
Life really is short, especially when we’re young and it seems that life will stretch out forever in front of us. In realizing that, do the choices you make today affect your future and your eternal destiny? What about your destiny? Have you made plans about yours? Do your destiny plans include hope for living forever?
Even if we don’t consciously make a choice, we are still making one. If I choose not to go out for dinner, I end up staying home and of course have then made a choice. God encourages us to make a very critical, conscious decision about him, which in turn affects our destiny.
“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15 NIV)
If you make a choice for God, then your plans for your destiny are already taken care of, because those plans for eternal life come with the choice you made for God.
“Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68, 69 NLT)
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NLT)
Notice from the words in Joshua 24:15 that the speaker says, “then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” When we choose God, we have the greatest relationship in the universe, and because of what he has done for us, we will want to serve him. That means we will want to learn to live his way, (the best way!) and he will show us how to help others both to find him and help them realize he will help them in their situations, whatever they may be.
Even though our lives are short, like vanishing vapor, we can have the most fulfilling lives ever, both now AND for eternity.
Readers are invited to contact Gloria at gloriawes@hotmail.com.