James 4:13-14 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Have you ever considered how short life is? It is here one day and gone the next. Every moment someone is being born and someone is dying on this planet. In a sense, the world is full of life which is regenerated minute by minute. Someone’s breath is taken away at the sight of a newborn child and another is taken away due to death. Even during the past few seconds of writing, lives have entered and exited this life. There must be more to life than a futile cycle that lasts moments and then is over. If life were only a ride at the county fair that is filled with a few ups and downs and a few thrills along the way, then this life would be a sad existence.
I am glad to tell you that life is but a vapor. It seems that just yesterday, I was waking up in my bedroom as mom yelled down the hall saying, “The bus is coming soon. It’s time for school.” It seems like yesterday that I drove a car for the first time. It was but yesterday when I got up from my college dorm and walked to class in the cold wintry air. It was yesterday when I got married and said “I do!” It seems like yesterday when dad and mom took their last breath. These moments are passing quickly. They are gone as soon as they are made. New moments must be made minute by minute and hour by hour, because this life is a vapor compared to the ocean of eternity!
In the midst of our short years, there is One who inhabits eternity. His name is Holy (Isa. 57:15). He sets upon the circle of the earth and looks down upon man as if we are but grasshoppers (Isa. 40:22). He looks as the nations as a drop in the bucket or dust on the scales (Isa. 40:15). He has measured the waters of the planet in the hollow of His hand (Isa. 40:12). He has scattered the stars in place and measured the heavens with His mighty hand. He knows all the star’s names, just balls of spectacular and illuminating gas (Isa. 40:26). How much more does He know you and see your every move as your years go passing by.
Will you stop and consider how powerless and weak we are? Time can not be stopped from passing. We can not keep our heart beating or our lungs inflated, but life is given as a gift. We exist for a purpose. Revelation 4:11 reminds us, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Are you giving the Creator honor and glory with your moments and hours? Are you enjoying the gift of His Son who came to get involved in our lives by dying on the cross for our sins and providing a way for us to be saved, know God, and love Him forever? Are you drinking down the moments filled with the things that matter most in this life—worshipping God individually, in your marriage, family, church, and community? Your life is slowly evaporating in the presence of the Son of God. What will He say when your breath is taken away and you have realized that life was a vapor? It is here one day and gone the next! Soak it up and use is wisely for the glory of God!
