Feeling Sentimental
Driving through a nearby neighborhood we were feeling rather sentimental as we named five friends who have passed away and eight who have moved away in the past five years. We are at an age where the reality of how fleeting life is seems to be a weekly reminder.
July 20th a healthy vibrant church friend of my husband's died when his tractor flipped over and killed him. We had been at church with his wife the night before.
James 4:14 CEV says:
What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears.
The Message translation tells the story this way in James 4:13-15:
Nothing but a Wisp of Fog
And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”
"The point is, only if God wills, do I live another minute. Therefore, the Lord decides when I die."
Then he goes on to say:
"Jesus put it this way: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground” — meaning, die — “apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of much more value than the sparrows” Matthew 10:29-31. Now, what is the point? The point is, if the time for the death of a tiny bird in a remote forest is of a concern to God and determined by God, how much more will our days be numbered and determined by God with great care and wisdom. In fact, the psalmist says to God, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” Psalm 139:16. Which means, the days that God has allotted for me and you are already written in a book. They are decided.
The Song
“Reason I Sing” Phil Wickham
