Those who trust in
their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
I was looking at an old picture recently of a group of
gentlemen that had helped build the first railroad that stretched across the
U.S., from the east coast all the way to the west coast. This was no doubt a
monumental and admirable feat. In the picture there were men in fine suits and
tall hats, front and center in the picture, smiling with great pride. And in
the background, there were guys dressed in work clothes, hammers in hand, faces
covered in dirt as if they had just paused from hammering spikes into the
ground to snap the picture. What struck me about this picture, and almost all
historical pictures for that matter, is that in today’s world, these men are but
a faint memory in a faded photograph. At the time of the photo, they were
probably seen as very important…and they probably felt quite significant. They
had lives that were important to them…families to care for, money to make,
railroads to establish. They likely triumphed in their achievements, grieved
their failures, and worked hard each day to climb the ladder. Yet now, in today’s
world, they are completely absent. Gone. In our lives today, it is easy to get
heavily invested in our own perishable abilities and temporary achievements. It’s
easy to get sucked into boasting of our victories and reveling in our perceived
invincibility, believing in our “immense importance”. But one day down the line,
we know that the lights will be turned out. One day down the line, this life
will come to a close…it’s completely inevitable. And in the end, when we are
staring face to face with our own mortality, what will we be trusting in? Will
we be rooted in something that is temporary and perishable, something of this
world…or will we be rooted in the eternal and everlasting, the one true Father?
God said be righteous…God said keep my commands perfectly and you will be
welcomed into the kingdom when the lights turn out. We become righteous only through
faith in Christ. We become righteous only because of what Christ did on our
behalf. We are seen as righteous only when we have acknowledged that we are
sinners, repented of our sin, and faithfully trusted that only through Christ
do we have any hope of being redeemed and restored in the eyes of God. When we
are deeply rooted in Christ, we will thrive like a green leaf…we will live this
life not worrying about what is to come…not worrying about what might happen
when this life ends. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we can live free from the burden
of uncertainty. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we can be completely certain
that when it’s all over and our earthly bodies are broken and depleted, we will
be restored, renewed, remade in the presence of the Father. What a great hope
we profess as privileged children of God! May we invest today in the eternal…may
we invest in a solid faith in the eternal Savior…and may we give thanks to God
that he provided a way for us to become righteous before him. To God alone be the glory!
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