The things we hold dear can soon disappear

In affluent western societies there is much focus on things. To many the pinnacle of life´s achievement is a million in the bank and a mansion on a hill. Yet in a matter of hours the bank can crash and the house burn to the ground or be destroyed by a hurricane.

Others worship their shiny new automobile. How attractive it was on the showroom floor. The polish gleamed and the salesman caressed the hood as he smilingly invited you to take it for a drive.

"It´s only fifty thousand," and that didn´t sound much when he said it quickly. Eventually that now-magnificent car will end up a pile of twisted metal in a wrecking yard.

Today´s vibrant, ravishing beauty queen will one day become a little old lady struggling with the trolley at the supermarket - if she lives that long.

The young multi-millionaire pop idol has to be in disguise when walking on the street lest he be mobbed. In ten years, on that same street without the disguise, no-one will recognize him.

The "things" of this life will either rot or rust – or in the case of humans they will simply grow old and die. Sometimes we don´t even get that far.

We think we have everything, but in reality we have nothing that will last. Jesus surely described our materialism accurately when He said: "What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world yet lose his own soul."

Happy is the poor and uninsured battler who can smile at the repossession of his house, or the wreckage of his "totalled" car.

His trust is not in things, but in God, whose promises are eternal. Any believer having them is sailing on a Titanic that can never sink and which has an anchor that will never rust. Jesus promises that the one trusting in Him will live even though he shall die, and no amount of money can buy that.

The gadgets that so many treasure are temporary - and so are we! The Bible describes our time on Planet Earth this way: "For what is your life? It is even a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."

Again: "As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more."

No-one can deny the truth of that. Surely it makes good sense to trust in God, who calls the eternal shots. We can do as we like in this world, but on death God takes over. The most vocal atheist will one day have to stand before the God he denies. The Bible says: "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment."

Jesus says no-one comes to the Father except through Himself, so surely it is wise to turn to Jesus while there is yet time.