YouTube features a video where people describe the kind of funeral they hope to have. It’s kind of macabre to talk about one’s death and the service that will celebrate or honor one’s life, but most did it with enthusiasm. Many hoped for a celebratory affair; some hope that their lives will have been so significant to others that sadness cannot be avoided when their life is remembered. One hoped that the funeral would bring together all the people he has known over the years so they can meet one another and form new relationships that bring value to their lives. Some just want to sponsor one final party for their friends. At the precipice of eternity, their main concern was the past—“what has been.” None mentioned “what will be.”
Many years ago at Christmas time I bought my girls backpacks. They were preschoolers, but the backpacks seemed useful for carrying a toy, a blanket, maybe a book or two, and some snacks-all the important things for a short trip, or a day with grandma. They were cheap little packs and lay so flat in the wrapping paper that I decided to stuff them with two rolls of paper towels each. On Christmas day, my gifts were a big hit! Especially the paper towels! In fact, the paper towels still rolled tightly in their cellophane wrapper were carried all over the house and became a combination ball/doll with infinite play-time possibilities! The backpacks, by comparison, remained among the thick scuttle of wrapping paper where they were opened. I guess the backpacks appeared to be just pretty boxes for the important stuff!
Not all kids are so discerning. Most can often find more uses for the box than the toy that came with it. Boxes invite imaginative play, and can also be mangled in the process without repercussion—it’s just a box, after all. As we get older, however, we learn the difference between the gift and the box that it came in: one has lasting value and one is just a conveyance or a means to deliver something of greater value.
But, even adults are not always so discerning. Some gifts still go ignored while we play with the box. We do so because our reasoning is faulty. Relationships falter when people chase after more attractive or more understanding boxes; lives run aground when people chase after titles, promotions, and bigger compensation packages--never asking if the work is truly substantive and worthy of their time. There are myriads more “vital,” “supreme,” and “urgent” things that clamor for our attention. Most of them are empty boxes; the gifts lay forgotten in living rooms, high school playing fields, cradles, and nursing homes. But, there is something even more important, too. Many fail to consider that life itself is merely a means to understand and grasp the greatest gift of all: a relationship with God through Jesus Christ; next to which all other things pale and fade by comparison.
When earthly existence is viewed as “all there is,” then of course, it follows that we should “eat, drink, and be merry.” But if our premise is wrong, and we truly are eternal beings, our earthly life is the only opportunity we have to make those decisions that affect all of eternity.
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. John 12:47, 48 ESV
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, Hebrews 9:27 ESV
Though, it is sadly common for people to believe that there is no afterlife, I only confronted this belief once as a chaplain. An elderly and dying farmer politely told me he was an atheist and was comfortable dying that way. In his words, the only thing ahead for him was “becoming dirt.”
He possessed no eternal perspective and was about to cross the border into the unknown without advice or map. Only pride can make someone so foolish. Only pride can keep one enamored with a stupid box. But pride cannot protect us from the truth . . . if all we are left holding is a box.
