Our Brief Time on Earth

Sometimes it astounds me to think of the brief time that God has given us on earth. I can see why this has been called a time of “probation.” Sometimes I open a song book to find suitable hymns to sing and when I do this, I occasionally see the one who penned the lyrics and put the words to the music. Generally the person lived in the nineteenth century—and this would be fewers than 200 years ago. How can this much time go by since the writing?

It has been perhaps 6,000 years since creation, thus the above 200 years would be only 1 / 30th of this period. How amazing! If the song was written only 100 or 50 years ago, this would be much shorter—perhaps 1/60th or 1/120th years since creation. We are here on earth for such a short time—and then we pass away.

As Moses writes in Psalm 90, we see something of the brevity of our time on earth:

As for the days of our life,

They contain seventy years,

or if due to strength, eighty years,

yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;

for soon it is gone and we fly away.

Psalm 90:10

Yes, 70 or 80 years is soon gone and we go to God. We read in Ecclesiastes 12:7: “The dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” We may not know exactly what is spoken about there, for we realize that only a few go to God and His beautiful realm and most are rejected and cast off (cf. Matthew 7:13-14). But we do understand that our bodies are “dust” and we know something about our “spirit.” (See Genesis 3:19b)

Think of the person who has been much in the news. I am referring to Bruce Willis. He stared in so many films for many years and was adored by millions. Yet, as you must know, for the past 10 or more years, he has been in steep decline. He was interviewed some years ago and he said that he doesn’t even believe in God and has no interest in spiritual things. We all wish that he would come to Christ somehow, but this seems so remote now. This is the way it is for millions—even billions—of people. Where will they spend eternity? What can you and I do for such people? Do you know anyone that you, personally, can reach now, while there is yet time?

May God help us to walk according to His ways and bring glory to Him during our brief time on earth!