Preparing for the Future

So, I'm meeting with a guy from a life insurance company this morning to finalize a new policy.  My wife and I talked about some of the details over the weekend, and hearing the subject of the conversation ("If I should die...") the kids are all "this is morbid!"

I explained to them that talking about our pending death (since we're all in the process of dying) may seem a bit morbid, but it's just plain good stewardship.  Now or later, we will die.  Making plans for the future, deciding how the kids will be provided for, arranging for the distribution of my massive wealth (my oldest son gets my Hot Wheels, and so on...), is basic wisdom.  No sense pretending it won't happen.  Perfect sense to plan for the inevitable.

I'm not sure how much that comforted the kids, but at least they saw the logic.  It is, truly, just good stewardship to plan for the future in general, especially those things that you know for certain will happen.  Ok, the thing, singular.  Because the only thing we know for sure that will happen...is that we will die. 

Now, then.  Here's the thought.  If it makes sense to make plans for the earthly implications of our death, which we know is coming; how much more is it simple wisdom to make plans for our eternal future.  If we know we're going to die, how foolish to not makes "arrangements" for that inevitability.  

There's a well know old story about a certain nobleman who kept a fool in his court, and he gave that fool a staff with a charge to keep it till he should meet with one who was a greater fool than himself. Some years later, the nobleman became ill and was on his death bed. When the fool came to see him, the sick lord said to him, "I must shortly leave you." "And where are you going?" asked the fool. After a moment’s thought, the nobleman said, "I am going into another world." 

And the fool began to quiz his master.  "When will you return? Within a month?" "No." "Within a year?" "No." "When, then?" "I suppose never!" was the final reply. "Never?" asked the fool. "And what provision have you made for this journey from which you will never return?" "None at all," said the lord.  The fool shook his head and said, “Here then, take my staff; for, with all my folly, I am not guilty of any folly such as this."

Jesus tells the parable about the man who stored up all his wealth, only to be told that he was going to die and all that wealth would be left behind. And the man himself, whom God calls a "fool", enters eternity unprepared. 

How foolish to buy life insurance, to put a will in order, etc. and give no thought to making plans for an eternal future.  One day each and every one of us will stand before a holy God and will answer for this life we've lived.  On our own, none of us can stand under that judgment.  None of us.  None of us have lived according to His perfect standards and can earn the right to live in the presence of His holiness for all eternity.

But in His great mercy, He sent His Son to live a life of perfect obedience, then give that life as a perfect sacrifice, and perfectly satisfy the wrath of God that our sins deserve.  He then calls us to repent and believe, to trust in that sacrifice, to look to Christ as our great Provider.  Then on that day, those for whom He died, those who He has called to Himself, those who have come to Him in faith, will stand before the Creator and Judge, not on our own merit, but on the merit of Christ.  Our eternal future has been provided for.  Eternal life has been given in Christ. 

Don't be a fool.  You prepare for the future of you and your family in this world.  Prepare for your eternal future as well.  Seek God in His Word.  Look to Christ today.