My wife has some beautiful flowers outside our back porch that bloom once a year for about a week. I was sitting in the car the other day and noticed that, for the first time, there are two of them. They bloom and have four separate large flowers that bloom. One of them bloomed before the other one.

As I sat in the car waiting on Cyndi, I noticed the flowers that had bloomed first, were dying away, whereas the others were just starting to bloom. As I sat there, a thought comes to mind...some things live for a while and then are gone. But, there are other things that take its place or come to life. I realize this is not profound. I have witnessed this before. But it struck me this way at this time.

As we age, we start to slow down. Our step isn’t as quick and we don’t have the endurance we once did. The smoothness of the skin begins to grow old and we begin to see, "oh no", wrinkles. We don’t have the strength we had when younger and our hands are not as steady. We rise earlier in the morning and not just to see the sun rise or to hear the birds sing. Solomon described all of this and more in Ecclesiastes 12.

One day everyone will die. Someone has said, "the old must die and the young do die." No one will be able to live forever in the body they have on this earth. The body will give up one day and we will have a new body prepared for the place we will spend eternity—heaven or hell. Yes, hell is just as real as heaven. It has been prepared for those who "know not God and obey not the gospel" 2 Thess. 1:8.

The flowers I described earlier will be back next year—they always are. Jesus one day will come back to claim his own. Read 1 Thess. 4:13-18 to find out more about this. When Jesus comes, will he find you prepared? Will you be ready to meet him in the air? The way we live our lives every day—not just on Sunday—will determine that. And, once Jesus comes, there will not be another opportunity.