Set for Life (and Death)

We would certainly all have to agree a lot of money can buy a lot of things. Listening to a recent sermon, the figure 86,400 was thrown out as a dollar amount deposited into your personal account each and every day. The catch (there is always a catch), the bank officer alerts you to is that each day the figure is zeroed out (the proverbial bad news) but each day that exact same amount is re-deposited for your choice of dispersal.

The Pastor’s analogy was thought provoking and true in a sense. He went on to say, each day we are given an 86,400 amount (of seconds) into the “account” of our day. I think I could live pretty well on $86,400 a day. After all, the figure would be $31,536,000 per year – some would call that being “set for life”.

Over the next five days, our team of two local missionaries, 3 travelers and 10 African nationals will have an opportunity to see 15,000 children. All this talk of numbers enticed and stimulated my seldom used math skills (what DO we do with those). First the number works out to about 1000 children for each person, over the course of 5 days 200 children per day – per person, certainly a manageable number. But when you take the seconds, 28,800 seconds (per 8 hour day x 5 – 144,000) and divide that by 15,000 you come up with 9.6 seconds per child! My math skill comes at the aid of a calculator. But the division does not calculate the way God does – of that I am sure. In the coming 144,000 seconds, I want to make certain I do not forget His timing and calculation ability. He is not giving us 9.6 seconds per child – but an opportunity to share eternity (incalculable) seconds with Him (and with them).

“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with His promise…” 2 Peter 3:19

Tomorrow, the promise arrives for the school children of HO. We know we are “set for life”, we pray to communicate His life and love well in the “account” we have been given.