No Time at All

People beyond a certain age remember looking forward to the year 2000 and calculating how old they would be at the turn of the millennium.

Now we look back and realize the turn of the millennium came and went years ago. I once asked a 100-year-old woman how long it felt for her to reach that milestone. She smiled thoughtfully and said, “Not long at all.” James wrote that life is like “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).

Life is extremely short, and years fly by.

The average life span in the United States is roughly 78½ years.

In Great Britain, it is a little over 81, while in Japan —which boasts the longest average life span of any country— a person can expect to live a little beyond 84. The person who has lived longest in modern times is a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who is said to have lived to be 122 before dying in 1997.

But compared to the life span of the patriarchs of the Bible, Ms. Calment was just getting started! Noah lived to 950. Jared, the grandfather of Methuselah, lived to be 962, while Methuselah became the oldest man to have ever died when he passed away at 969. The oldest man to have ever lived is Enoch, Methuselah’s father, who, at the age of 365, was taken to heaven without seeing death.

God’s plan is that His children live forever.

Eternity will give us all the time we need to learn, develop, meet new people, and explore new worlds. And all the while, we will reflect the character of God more and more and experience true happiness as God sees it.

But eternity is rapidly approaching.

God grants us this life so we may develop characters that will be ready for the return of Jesus. A soul is a terrible thing to waste.

If this life was all you had, life would be little more than futile.

God gives meaning to your life. Through Jesus, you can live forever.