What's the Point?

Today I can't help but think of how fleeting the human life is. Truly we are as a vapor. I think back to 10 years ago, and it doesn't seem real. I couldn't comprehend the gravity of that situation when I was not quite 12 years old, and I still can't comprehend it now. Three thousand human beings, just like me, are gone from this earth forever, and it seemed to happen so quickly and so easily.

I wonder how many of them exercised, and ate healthy, and went to the doctor regularly, and did everything they could to ensure that they would live long on the earth. I wonder how many considered the possibility of death that day. I wonder if their families ever imagined them being gone forever.

“One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4)

In the grand scheme of things, 3,000 is a minuscule number. There are all sorts of people dying every day, from all kinds of causes- whether it be murder, accident, or their bodies deteriorating. I was reading Ecclesiastes last week, and it can be depressing how futile all of it is. All of your wisdom, knowledge, hard work, money.... everything will one day pass away. You cannot keep it when you die.

How many of those 3,000 left that day to meet their Savior? How many left that day to find that there is One God and they will suffer eternal torment for denying Him? My mind cannot comprehend, but my heart aches at the thought.

And today, as I think of all those people ten years ago, all of those people today, who have and will meet death, I am challenged to walk this earth with an eternal perspective. One day, life and the earth as we know it will be gone, what will we have then? What am I really living for?

The matter is summed up for us quite beautifully at the very end of Ecclesiastes.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.”


Lord, I thank you for Your Son, and that I will not have to pay the price that I owed because He paid it for me. Help us to walk with the reality in mind that every person we come across will one day stand before Your throne. You've offered salvation. I ask that You would enable us to boldly proclaim the Good News to everyone we can. You're the point of it all.