I have watched six-week-old puppies grow, get old and die. And then I have buried them.
I have buried both four legged friends and those with only two. I have witnessed both the beginning of life and its end firsthand, and I will be a firsthand witness to the end of mine.
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 14:12)
I will see those four-legged friends of mine again someday, not that they are waiting for me in heaven, for they have no eternal soul, but I believe in the promises mentioned in Psalm 16:11, that there are pleasures forevermore awaiting all who have been crucified with Christ, and occasionally it will be pleasurable to spend sometime with those I have dug graves for.
The majority of people I have met in my life I will never see again; I see no reason to visit them in hell to reminisce with those in eternal torment I once knew here. What would I say to them?
“I told you so?”
“I tried to tell you?”
“You should have listened?”
“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” (Matt. 10:29)
“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:” (1st Peter 1:24)
He is coming for you, you know that, don’t you? Death will arrive for you one day and you cannot stop him, it is appointed. Until then, you get to watch as the flowers fade away, as friends and family members take their last breath here.
My grandmother, a God-fearing woman tried to witness to my father many times in his life, I happened to be outside of his hospital room when he died, and even until the day my mother died, she would not describe the look on my father’s face the moment he left this earthly plane, except to say it was horrific.
I will probably never see either of them again.
I pen this letter of death to you today for only one reason, that you fully understand the finality of that word, that there are no second chances, either for them or for you. Here is where you speak to them, here, in this life is the only opportunity you will ever have to reveal to them the One who loves them, who died for them.
There are no second chances.
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Heb. 9:27)
This should be the fervency of your soul, not these beginnings of sorrows we find ourselves in, not the Rapture, not continually revealing how wickedly the wicked are behaving, the wide and the narrow path, the finality of life should be, death approaching.
“Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;” (Eph. 1:16)
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16b)
These are just words on paper today, words my beautiful wife will type for me. Tomorrow they may be seen as truth to you with your own eyes, tomorrow, whether four legged or two, someone you love may be removed from you.
Isn’t it amazing, the opportunity to repent that the Almighty has given to all mankind, while the beast of the field live by instinct and mankind has been given free will, yet there is more hope that you will be able to spend time with those friends with four legs a thousand years from now than there is many of those with two that you have known, that you will never see your parents, your child, your siblings or best friend ever again.
What would you say to them as they suffer, as they burn?
Why won’t you say it to them today?
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)
Have you ever looked in your dog or cat’s eyes and told them that Jesus loves them? Why don’t you do that for your two-legged friends?
One chance at life, then death.
Don’t miss that opportunity.
