Counting Days: Return to Dust

“You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O sons of men.’ For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.”

“You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning – though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.” (Psalm 90:3-6)

Here is a foundational principle of life that everyone agrees on – Christians, atheists, protestants, Catholics, democrats, republicans – doesn’t matter. We all believe that this life ends, that everyone dies. (What happens after that is more controversial.)

countingday_350Those of us who believe in God also believe that He doesn’t die. He never ends. From his perspective of forever, our 80 or so years is just a moment. Here and gone again as a single day or night is to us. He brushes away the remains of another generation and the next one takes its place.

Why dwell on that humbling reality we all agree on? Because we cannot be wise people without first admitting that God’s view of everything is as far above ours as ours is above a blade of grass. If he doesn’t include us in his plan, his family, we have no hope for anything better than this short, hard life.

Think: Are you connected to God and eternity? If someone asked you to explain how your single life is more than just another one to be swept away in the sleep of death, what would you tell him?

Pray: Thank God that he is everlasting and that he offers you an opportunity to live with him forever through faith in Jesus.

Do: With this is mind, read Colossians 3:1-4 and think about why it matters what we think about during our few short years on this side of eternity.