Morning Devotional

June 27, 2004

"Vanishing Bubbles"

by Don Emmitte

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Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God. Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts. For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the prophet says, "People are like grass that dies away; their beauty fades as quickly as the beauty of wildflowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall away. But the word of the Lord will last forever." And that word is the Good News that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:21-25 NLT).

Grass withers...flowers fall.... trees decay.... rocks crumble.... ...and bubbles vanish! Well, that’s not exactly what the Scripture says, but it is a close paraphrase!

I was brought to this thought the other night when Mary and I tried our new hot tub for the first time. We came home after dinner out and I decided to turn the heater on the spa and try it out. There’s nothing more relaxing that sitting in 102-degree water and letting the bubbling water jets relax and soothe sore muscles.  It wasn’t long before Mary was more than warm and she got out to drape her legs over the side of the pool to cool off. Sitting alone in the spa I began to think about the bubbles the jets create. They are there one moment and then they simply vanished, replaced with the others.

The incident made for a terrific teaching moment. You see, I was reminded, that just like the bubbles, we too, the people of God, quickly vanish from this Earth. Whether we live to be 10 or 100, the life span of man in very short when put in terms of the age of mankind. Our lives are but a bubble!

Two truths came to my mind as I recalled our reading this morning. First, we need to see our mission as Christians all the more urgent. Peter says, "Now you can have sincere love for each other." That is our mission as Christians. We are to be different than others in the love we show toward one another. However, another thought came to mind. We must also seize the day! There is no time to waste! Bubbles vanish and so does our time!

I may be the world’s worst procrastinator. It is a serious fault. We are not given an inexhaustible supply of time. Once it passes it is gone forever. That moment cannot be recreated or recaptured. It caused me to reflect on all those little things that need to be done. Perhaps you need to reflect on your life as well. What things have you put off? Seize this moment and do them, before it is too late!