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One Last Look

  • December 17, 2018
  • Posted by: Carolyn Mahal
  • Category: Devotions
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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.” James 4:13-15

Recently, I heard a pastor challenge a group of people by asking them the following question:

What if on your way to heaven, God granted you one last look at your life on Earth, what would you choose to see?

I love questions like this because they give my mind plenty of things to consider. It’s a great question because there are so many choices on which I could use this last glimpse. Perhaps you would choose to see…

  • The face of your spouse
  • A final check-in on your children
  • Friends or family members you didn’t get to see often
  • The places you most enjoyed visiting here on earth
  • A place you never got to see before
  • An example of the good that you were able to do during your life
  • Something you wanted to accomplish but didn’t
  • Your greatest regret

There is a wide range of things here. Some are quite personal while others are more selfless. Some would leave a negative feeling while others would encourage and uplift. I can’t say which one I would pick. I guess it would depend a bit upon the situation. If I had lived a very long and full life, I would make a different choice than I would if I were to be taken home tomorrow. It may also depend upon the way I would die. A quick, unexpected death may change my priorities where if I had time to prepare, I might knock off much of the list while still here. What I can say is that whatever I would choose would provide a strong indication of who I am and what I was focused upon at that moment of time. No matter what my choice would be, one word would be at the center of it all.

More.

More experiences. More opportunities. More accomplishments. More memories. More time.

You see, even as we head toward an eternity of discovering what God has prepared for us, our human natures will pull us back toward what we know, what is comfortable, and what we think we can control. This is an interesting contrast when you compare what we would look back at in comparison with how Christ Himself would have approached the same thing: which He did.

So, let me ask: What if on His way to heaven, Jesus chose to take one last look at His life on Earth, what would He have chosen to see?

In no way can I put myself into the mind of our Savior, but I’d like to think that He too would want more.

More peace. More grace. More forgiveness. More hope. More love.

As we live our lives each day, let us seek to focus upon those things that stand the test of time so that when we leave for our eternal reward, we too can see the impact of a life filled with seeking God’s will so that through us His work can be done in countless lives today, tomorrow, and for eternity.

 

Devotion by Richard Schumacher

LSEM Director of Programs & Services