The Elephant in the Room

The issue of why people look to the heavens is a mystery until we think seriously about life for a moment. There’s a huge elephant in the room called “death,” and he’s going to eventually stomp on all of us. When we realize this, it makes sense for each of us to see if there is any way we can avoid being stomped on. That’s why people usually become interested in God—the Giver of life. Some are slower than others to get to serious thought. But as those around them get stomped on and they bury their bodies, it slowly dawns on them that they too have a problem. A big one. It’s an issue everyone with a brain thinks about, but few people talk about.

The most sobering of times for any human being, is when he or she is on their death bed. It is in those last moments of time that we tend to open our hearts and expose our fears. Look at some fearful last words of some famous people: Queen Elizabeth the 1st of England whispered, “All my possessions for one moment of time.” Ludwig van Beethoven, famous composer cried, “Too bad, too bad! It’s too late!” Thomas Hobbs (famous 17th century English philosopher) said, “I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.” Socrates, the classical Greek philosopher said, “All of the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.” There is a “firm foundation,” there is a “divine word.” It’s the Bible, but so few listen to and obey its divine instructions. The famous humanist, Aldus Huxley said, “It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘Try and be a little kinder.’”

Listen to the last words of Napoleon. He said, “I marvel that where the ambitious dreams of myself and of Alexander and of Caesar should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant—Jesus—should be able to stretch his hands across the centuries, and control the destinies of men and nations.” He also lamented, "I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth. Such is the fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ!" That “abyss” is the separation made by sin. The moment you repent and trust Jesus Christ, it will disappear, and you will come to know Him whom the Bible says is “life eternal.”