Happy belated New Year! Can you believe that we are already a whole decade into a new century and a new millennium? Contrary to the old saying, I've found that time flies whether I'm having fun or not!
Time does not pass without notice. We can all attest to aches and pains, gray hair and no hair. There's a current e-mail going around with pictures of celebrities "then and now." Some are hardly recognizable. Yes, "the times they are a changing" and we are too.
The harshest reminders of time for me, however, are the deaths of those around us. Each copy of the Appeal brings notices of the deaths of those of all ages. We are deeply moved and are encouraged to aid those families suffering great loss. This is rightly so.
The Bible is filled, however, with descriptions of life's brevity and uncertainty. We are reminded in the book of Job that life is: swifter than a weaver's shuttle, as brief as a breath, as frail as a spider's web, as fleeting as a flower, passing like a shadow, evaporating like water, short-lived as fresh milk, and coming to an end like a tale that is told.
However, we are reminded that these are not necessarily reasons for sorrow or sadness. Other writers remind us that we are pilgrims, strangers, foreigners and sojourners on this earth. Nothing here is permanent. The old spiritual had it right, "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing thru."
Jesus promised to go and prepare a place for us and that He was the way to that eternal life. Paul was in a quandary. One the one hand, he wanted to leave this world to be with Jesus forever. On the other hand, he felt that he still had work to do here. He summed it all up well in Romans chapter 14 "for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's".
So, let's live this year to the fullest, always realizing that we're only here temporarily. If that is troubling, there are churches all over town willing to share this Good News!
• Bruce Henderson is the pastor of Airport Road Church of Christ.