Over the weekend, I was working on our finances. Having switched to a new software program, I was attempting to get everything current, adding some transactions and deleting others. Suddenly, I noticed our checking account was gone! Ten years of transactions and tax information vanished in a moment. Because I was working with a new computer and a new program, I hadn’t yet backed up anything. Feelings of dread washed over me as I vainly attempted to undo whatever I had done. Nothing worked. I spent the next several hours in shock as I contemplated the consequences. What of all the hours I had put in over the years? What if we were audited by the IRS? What proof would we have of our deductions?
As my wife and I drove to another town, I prayed for the Lord to intervene and rescue us from this disaster. And then I remembered I still had the old program disk in storage! That glimmer of hope carried me through the rest of the day. The next morning, I went to our storage unit, praying that, among all of the boxes, I could find the one containing the disk. I opened the unit and spotted what I thought was the box it would be in. Within a couple minutes, I had that precious disk in my hand. Returning home, I installed the old program on my old computer and then retrieved the financial files off our external hard drive. Within a few minutes, our finances were back in order and I was breathing again!
I discovered a lesson in this. Just as my financial data vanished in a flash, and its disappearance was totally unexpected, so, too, can our lives or the lives of those close to us. We, as James describes, “are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” And when death occurs to those we love, we are overwhelmed. Shell-shocked. All seems to be lost. Or we cringe in fear at the thought of our own lives coming to an end.
But when it appears and feels all is lost, there comes a glimmer of hope: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26) Something to cling to as our hearts quake with fear and dread. The life that was lost will be restored! In Jesus, nothing is lost forever. Separation is temporary.
In this hope comes freedom. We do not have to be enslaved by fear of the death of someone we love or by our own. We do not have to be imprisoned by overwhelming grief. Though life vanishes, it does not cease to exist. Like my financial data, it is backed up, not on some computer disk or the cloud, but in Heaven by the blood of Jesus.
Today, know that your life and the lives of those you love are but a mist that won’t last all that long. But there is no need to be enslaved by fear or dread. The promise of Jesus can sustain us. We may vanish from this life, but we are saved and will continue to live in Eternity.
© Jim Musser 2014
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