Don’t Blink!

Posted by Karen on Oct 28, 2012 | 0 comments

The things that the world cherishes most—riches, beauty and life—are fleeting. The Bible uses word pictures to aptly describe their transitory nature: the swift wings of the eagle, dreams and shadows, flowers that wither, vapors that vanish, a breath that is exhaled.

Proverbs 23:5 — “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”

Proverbs 21:6 — “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor…”

Proverbs 31:30 — “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting…”

Psalm 144:4 — “Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.”

Job 14:2 — “[Man] springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.”

Psalm 39:4-5 — “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You. Each man’s life is but a breath.”

What am I doing with my one breath? Am I spreading a sweet fragrance before I wither away? Am I using my days wisely by investing in the eternal future of myself and others? The transitory nature of this life only magnifies the permanence of the life that is to come.

Jesus never instructs us not to blink regarding this temporary life, but when world events cause us to faint in terror (Luke 21). Look up! Christ, our Redeemer, is coming for His own!