Do we know what is going to happen to us today? Are we sure we have a plan? Do we even know what will happen in the next hour or two?
It was afternoon when the young man exited the freeway. It had been a busy day at work and he was taking sandwiches to his fellow workers who had missed lunch. The older vehicle in front of him also drove the off-ramp and slowly stopped in the right turn lane at the signal light. The young man waited to proceed when the light changed, but when it did, the vehicle in front did not move. Another light change happened and still there was no movement. After the third light change, many drivers were getting impatient, so the young man got out and approached the vehicle. Its motor was still running, so he tapped on the window.
Opening a car door, the young man caught the elderly driver as he nearly fell out. The young man realized something was very wrong, because there was no response from the driver or the elderly passenger. The young man found no pulse on either of them, and police and EMTs who came immediately pronounced both occupants dead. Somehow the driver had slowed down for the signal light, stopped his car, and died.
A coroner later said the woman had died of a stroke and the driver of a heart attack. He surmised the woman had a stroke first and died in the car. When the driver, her husband, realized she was dead, he suffered a fatal heart attack right there at the signal light. The couple had just left the freeway, car still running, and both were dead. And the young man who found them was very much shaken.
Do you know what is going to happen to you today? Are you sure you have a plan? Do you even know what will happen in the next hour or two?
James writes in chapter 4:13-15, "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. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that'." I quoted this verse in my August 31 Weekly Message. No matter how many times I read or study or merely remember these words, I am taught by them.
Life can seem to us like a mist that vanishes, but to God, we are His beloved creatures. That's why He sent Jesus to save us. If we were nothing more than a dying animal on the roadside or a bug headed for a windshield, He would not have gone to such great lengths to create us, forgive us, teach us or prepare an eternal place for us.
God had a reason for the true story above. The young man is still seeking it.
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