“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” James 4:14
After the four-hour labor of three workers, a large area in a wooded area was cleared of trees and brush. The waste was carried to one place.
A pile 18 feet in diameter and seven feet tall resulted from all that work. It was a massive heap of trimmed branches and cut trees.
Although I originally intended to burn the heap, I deemed it too large to incinerate. Instead, I ran the brush through my small wood chipper.
The job was massive and took three days. After the hard work was complete, the remaining pile of chips was only four feet long and three-foot-high. Hundreds of feet of trees and brush, when ground up, resulted in only a tiny heap of ¾” wood chips. There was not much to show for the tree’s growth and our labor.
Several years previously, I had cleared another wooded area. The resulting pile of small trees and brush was much smaller, about eight feet long and five feet tall. It was burnt, and after the fire was out and the ashes cooled, there was barely enough of the plant remains to fill a five-gallon bucket.
One day, even this world will have little to show for all the building, civilizations, technology, lives, history, and accomplishments. After the rapture, Great Tribulation (as recorded in The Revelation), and the 1,000-year millennial reign of Christ, the Earth will be “passed away” (II Peter 3:10, Mat. 24:35, Isaiah 65:17, Dan. 2:44). Nothing will remain of all man had made for thousands of years.
Elegant buildings, towering skyscrapers, technology, and all that remained on the Earth will be replaced by a new Earth that God will create. It will be an Earth without the curse of sin. All that man valued will all be gone. There will be little to show for humanity’s efforts.
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” Rev 21:1 Also: Isaiah 65:17, I John 2:17.
Throughout our lives, we have eaten much, earned much, accomplished much, been to many places, experienced much, seen incredible things, met and talked to thousands of people, and made some difference in this world. However, when our life is over, like the remnants of the trees and saplings and eventually the Earth, there will not be much left to show for our lives and efforts, just some bones in a casket or a small pile of dust.
Depressing, but a reality that little of man’s efforts will remain to show his existence. However, there can be a glorious eternal future for all. Those that are made “righteous” by believing and trusting Christ’s sacrificial death as payment for their sins can have an eternal life (John 3:16, 36, John 4:14, John 5:24, John 6:40).
“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” Mat. 25:46
What a waste of life to not invest one’s eternal soul in what will last for eternity (John 6:27). The unsaved have put no faith or trust in God’s way of Heaven and will be terrified by the Lake of Fire that awaits them.
However, many saved people will go to Heaven but have not wisely invested their time on Earth. They have not labored to store up “treasures in Heaven” (Mat. 6:20). They have frivolously spent their opportunity in this life on vain priorities (Gal. 6:8) that will not matter in their eternal future.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Mat. 6:19-21
Christian, you have time here on Earth to do as the Lord commands. You should lay up treasures for your future. Obey the Bible and do for the Lord what He allows you to do for Him. Do not arrive in an eternal Paradise and find that you have done nothing or of little value for your eternity.
“In this world, it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.” — Beecher
