Dear Ones,
In the course of life we are exposed to loss continually. In some ways it is like our employment. One works with a co-worker week in and out for years and then they retire, transfer or quit. It is hard to imagine their being absent at first but work continues and in no time at all our old colleague is a fading memory. The new folks on the job don’t remember them at all and being preoccupied with work, we remember them less ourselves. I think that this is what Solomon meant in Ecc 1:11 when he declared, “There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.” We are threatened by this. We erect headstones, build monuments etc. We make fine-sounding pronouncements about people’s deeds being immortalized and promptly forget. There is the old joke about a little boy seeing a plaque on a church wall and who asked the pastor what it meant. The pastor replied that it was in honor of those who died in the service. To which the little boy asked, “The first or second service?” I have walked through many churches and seen such plaques and wondered if anyone attending remembered these folks? Even so do we pass out of this life. Make your calling and election sure! Seek the Lord. (2 Pet 1:3-11) Know that He knows you; that He is not the God of the dead but of the living. When I am absent from this body, I will be with Him. I am with Him now, but life presses in and makes it hard to focus. Do you know who you are? Are you focused on things of eternal value? It is a good thing to daily evaluate priorities. I want to invest in things that last. How about you? And long after this life is a distant memory, I will be with the Lord and with His people. I rejoice in the certainty that He knows us and will never forget us.
In the course of life we are exposed to loss continually. In some ways it is like our employment. One works with a co-worker week in and out for years and then they retire, transfer or quit. It is hard to imagine their being absent at first but work continues and in no time at all our old colleague is a fading memory. The new folks on the job don’t remember them at all and being preoccupied with work, we remember them less ourselves. I think that this is what Solomon meant in Ecc 1:11 when he declared, “There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.” We are threatened by this. We erect headstones, build monuments etc. We make fine-sounding pronouncements about people’s deeds being immortalized and promptly forget. There is the old joke about a little boy seeing a plaque on a church wall and who asked the pastor what it meant. The pastor replied that it was in honor of those who died in the service. To which the little boy asked, “The first or second service?” I have walked through many churches and seen such plaques and wondered if anyone attending remembered these folks? Even so do we pass out of this life. Make your calling and election sure! Seek the Lord. (2 Pet 1:3-11) Know that He knows you; that He is not the God of the dead but of the living. When I am absent from this body, I will be with Him. I am with Him now, but life presses in and makes it hard to focus. Do you know who you are? Are you focused on things of eternal value? It is a good thing to daily evaluate priorities. I want to invest in things that last. How about you? And long after this life is a distant memory, I will be with the Lord and with His people. I rejoice in the certainty that He knows us and will never forget us.
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