I remember my first skiing lesson. Like just about everyone else on the bunny slope that day, I fell a few times. The only part of me that got a little beat up from that fall was the part God designed for that purpose. But today the entertainment world is mourning the sudden and shocking death of Natasha Richardson-from a head injury sustained in a fall on the beginner's slope.
As I heard that news, I looked out the window to see a beautiful morning mist covering a nearby lake. Within minutes the mist that had defined the landscape was gone.
The morning news and the morning mist called to remembrance a sobering life commentary from the Bible. God says, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' 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 4:13-14).
We run full speed through our life, always fully expecting a tomorrow. One day, we're wrong. And Natasha Richardson's untimely and unlikely passing is a reminder that we really are just one heartbeat away from eternity. Before we quickly turn the page on another reminder of how fragile life is, it's important to stop and ask ourselves, "Am I ready for eternity-whenever and however it comes?"
What's on the other side of that last heartbeat? "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Judgment for living my life my way instead of God's way. For every sin, every wrong thing we have ever done. If we face a perfect God with our undeniable record of rebelling against Him, we have no hope of entering His heaven. Because "nothing impure will ever enter it" (Revelation 21:27).
Along comes Good Friday and the butchering of the Son of God on a cross. Incredibly, God loves you and me so much that "He sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Bottom line: I did the sinning; Jesus did the dying. So our eternal death penalty for our sin could be paid in full. Three days later, Jesus blew the doors off His grave and proved that eternal life is His alone to give. So the day you die could mean, not the end, but the beginning of being more alive than you have ever been before. If you've taken what happened on that cross as your only hope.
It all comes down to whether you've put your total trust in this Jesus to be the Forgiver of your sins, the new Driver of your life. The "mist" of your life and mine can blow away in a moment and our eternity will begin-with God or forever away from Him. It really is time, as the Bible says, to "prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12).
If you have never put your total trust in Jesus, who gave His life for you, we would like to help you begin a personal relationship with Him. Visit Yours for Life, or call 888-966-7325, and let this be your Jesus day to be ready for heaven.