“LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered–how fleeting my life is.” (Psalm 39:4)
He was honored by President Franklin Roosevelt with a gold medal for valor. Donn Fendler was described by his twin brother as a natural born athlete. In 1939 at the age of twelve – he raced other hikers in his company to get to the top of Maine’s tallest mountain, Mount Katahdin, the northeast end of the Appalachian Trail. Starting back down on his own, he became lost for nine days and survived to tell this tale many times to school children . . . just in case someday they might encounter a similar fate. When he was found 30 miles from where he had started, he weighed 15 pounds less than before he began his trek. He survived by eating berries and was bruised and shoeless. But God blessed him with 78 more years. When he died at the age of 90, his family stated that his survival story “will stand forever as a testament to the mercy and miracles of God, prayer and determination to never give up.”
Less than a month before Fendler’s passing in 2016, a boating accident claimed the life of Miami Marlin’s pitcher Jose Fernandez. Fernandez was not a stranger to the perils of the sea. The native-born Cuban tried to defect three times before successfully reaching American shores in 2007 with his mother. It was on that final voyage that someone fell off the boat, and Fernandez jumped in the water to save the individual. Years later, he told The Miami Herald: “I dove to help a person not thinking who that person was. Imagine when I realized it was my own mother. If that does not leave a mark on you for the rest of your life, I don’t know what will.” As it turned out the rest of his life was short, because he died at the young age of 24 at the height of his career with a child on the way. The day after his death, a Marlins’ colleague hit a homerun, his first of the year, while the team went on to win the game. In a post-game interview, the player said “I told the boys, ‘If you all don’t believe in God, you all might as well start.”
Belief in God. That might indeed be a very good beginning. Both Donn Fendler and Jose Fernandez experienced events in their journey that could have been the end of life as they knew it. Both were allowed to survive a while longer – one for a few years and the other for many decades. Why did the one man inherit a life that many feel was cut short while the other was able to live a long, full one? Job, a prophet in the Old Testament, said this to God – “You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer” (Job 14:5). One thing is certain. God is all-knowing. He is the only One who sees the final chapter and the ending to our story. Biblical wisdom has always held that we are like the flowers of the field. As with them, we must realize that our days are also numbered. Believers in Christ come to understand that while we do not know what tomorrow holds, we do know who holds our tomorrow. Paul said, “Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Like many of you, I know several individuals who are faced with illnesses which the medical community would define by terminal diagnoses. When one of them was told that essentially there was nothing more that could be done, I reflected on my own feelings of mortality. I came to the conclusion that this individual is exactly where he has been all along; that is, in the hands of the Great Physician. Maybe that’s what the Psalmist meant when he wrote: “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Wise enough to make today count for ourselves and others. Wise enough to forgive and let go of those petty grievances we have been holding onto – which in the realm of all eternity will be nothing more than a fleeting moment, a brief blip on the screen of life. Every breath we take as well as the individual and collective moments we share each day will eventually come to pass in the blink of an eye. When the trumpet sounds (1 Corinthians 15:52), we need to be ready for the call.
REFLECTION: If you were on notice that you had a limited time to live, what things would you want to put in order? Regardless of your remaining days, is your life in the hands of the Great Physician?
A NEW LOOKUP DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., OCTOBER 22, 2016. COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.