To me the last day of the year always has greater meaning than Christmas, Easter, or any other holiday of the year. That’s when all kinds of thoughts – good and not-so-good – engulf my mind. Thoughts that cannot be ignored, try as I may. I am not in the least interested in going out on this last night of the year, night that will never ever return.
In my early youth, I felt I just had to go out as all my family members and acquaintances have done throughout the years and enjoy what the world has to offer
This year has been the worst ever with hundreds of thousands of deaths all over the globe due to COVID-19. Living on a tiny island in the sunny Caribbean does not shelter us from the troubles of far-off countries. It doesn’t take very long for what happens there to take place here.
Is it my imagination that more people die during the month of December than any other month of the year? It seems that there are always a larger number of death announcements in this newspaper during December. My own Dad died on December 15.
Some of the scary questions that will bombard my mind this year-end and ought to be on your mind as well: What will the New Year bring? Will we all live to see another New Year’s Eve or will someone very close to us depart unexpectedly? We all know that in almost all cases, death comes as a thief in the night. In this month alone I have witnessed the death of no less than three close acquaintances, one of whom was a former co-worker. It’s a horrible thing when all that’s left of a family member or a close friend is a couple of pounds of dust in a silver urn. And it’s also horrible when you can’t personally attend their funeral, but have to follow it on your phone.
This deadly pandemic will likely not come to an end soon but will continue to take lives in the New Year. Will our economy revive and go back to normal so that people can get their jobs, in effect, their livelihood back, or will they have to continue depending on our government or the Netherlands to put food on their table? Will life return to being normal, or will this “new normal” linger for a long time and even become permanent?
Another year has gone by and for all of us this means we are a whole year closer to what lies ahead, whether good or bad. Nearly 150,000 people world-wide die every day of the year; 104 every second of every day that goes by. This is data from 2017, thus the number is certainly much higher now due the pandemic, increase in the number of murders, calamities, suicides, etc. Imagine 150,000-plus souls departing on a daily basis, and according to God’s Word, only a small number of them enter the Kingdom of God. Quite a sombre and scary thought.
Lots and lots of souls depart for hell every day, and yet not many parents talk to their loved ones about the way they ought to live their lives. Too many of us wait until it’s too late to talk with our loved ones about the inevitable and we don’t know when the inevitable is going to take place. We keep putting it off. Worse yet, we depend on their schoolteacher or the priest or someone else to talk with our children about these vital matters. Big mistake! Little do we realize that their eternal salvation greatly depends on how their parents bring them up. Aren’t we all accountable to God for the way we train our children?
In Luke, chapter 14, there is a parable about a poor beggar who sat daily at the gate of a rich man, hoping to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. It’s clear that the poor man suffered from hunger every day of his miserable life. He died and went to be with the Lord. The rich man eventually died, was buried and went to a place of torment. From where he was at, he could see and even talk to Abraham in whose presence the poor man was. People say that Jesus mostly spoke in parables, and this is true. But who is to say that His parables are not based on the truth? Would Jesus waste His time telling fairy tales?
Try to imagine for a moment yourself in heaven and being able to temporarily see and maybe even talk to one of your children in hell? He might ask you, Mom/Dad, why didn’t you ever talk to me and warn me about this awesome place? Will I have to spend eternity down here?
I once had a beloved first cousin who unexpectedly passed away tragically. I flew down to the hospital in Puerto Rico, where she had been shipped in an attempt to save her life, to speak to her about the Lord, but she had fallen into a coma and according to the doctor could not hear a word I said to her. Don’t put off speaking to your loved ones about the Lord.
Another question that should come to our mind is: Have I progressed at all, spiritually or otherwise, since last year, or have I wasted another year of my life? Let’s resolve to thoroughly examine ourselves this year. Jesus admonishes us: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19. All the material riches we accumulate in this life will be of absolutely no value on the day we exhale for the last time.
Wishing all a safe, corona-free and most of all, true spiritual growth in 2021 and beyond.
Clive Hodge
