Living near a cemetery, as I did for years, meant much opportunity to ponder the terminal nature of life. But it’s often a fleeting thought, as you would give an uncertain future event or a celestial idea, far removed from present day. For many of us, the reality of death doesn’t quite hit us – not even in the middle of a bloody Call Of Duty episode – until someone around us is gone.

A couple of years ago, on a week like this, I lost a dear friend of mine. He was young, barely into his 20’s. I remember telling him, on one of the last conversations we had, that he was so young and had his whole life ahead of him. Well, it turned out he didn’t. Several decades older, a friend’s mum passed on in the same week. She had two grown children, and you could say, I guess, lived a fuller life. This week, I’ve mourned a 73-year old and a 35-year old friend.

But that’s the thing with death. There never seems to be a right time for it to happen. Or a right way. It always takes us by complete surprise (even when we think we ‘knew’), and it always seems terribly unfair. And yet, if there’s one thing the Bible is clear about, it’s the general brevity of life. The psalmist observes that 70 years are given to us. Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away. Jesus himself ‘died’ at the very tender age of 33.

This week took me back to two foundational things about life. One is that none of us is guaranteed any amount of time on this earth. Youth and wealth, especially, can deceive us into thinking our time is endless. It is not.

A story is told of a ‘rich fool’ in the 12th chapter of Luke, who, examining his vast expanse of wealth, declared his lofty plans for the future. He would build new barns to store all his grain, then say to himself, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink and be merry.’ But just a verse later, God tells him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ 

Jesus’ point was not that we should live life afraid of dying the next minute! It was that we should live a life aware of how fleeting our time is, number our days aright, and live wisely. He described as a fool the one who (in the little time they have on earth) lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Which brings me to the second thing that is true – we will all live forever. Jesus’ statement alluded to the fact that we have another life coming – an eternal life – and that we would do well to spend our current days with forever in mind.

Death is but a blink, a door to eternity. But forever is a very long time. It is a wise person that thinks about whether they will spend it in the splendor of heaven, overflowing with the crowning of God’s rewards, or forever in heaven, saved only, to quote Paul, as one being snatched from the fire, or in eternal damnation in the fiery pits of hell.

Because we will all die, and then live. Forever.

[Photo: Salerno War Cemetery, Italy – CWGC]