It is earthquake country. Fault lines crisscross the state, and the danger of a major shake-up is always present. A reporter working on an article about earthquakes asked one businessman, whose business could be destroyed by a shift in the nearby fault line, how he could live so close to danger.
He answered, “By hoping it won’t happen.”
To another the reporter asked, “How do you cope with living on a fault?”
“We cope by just not thinking about it!”
We used to believe that an ostrich would meet danger by hiding her head in the sand, but even an ostrich is not that foolish! A bird that can stand as much as eight feet high would be a conspicuous target, but in truth an ostrich reacts to an alarm from which it cannot run away (as when sitting on the nest) by lowering that long neck until it is close to the ground. It is then hard to see among even small vegetation.
So much for the ostrich! But what about the human who copes with danger by “just not thinking about it”?
What about the person who knows that his time on earth is limited, who knows not how short that time may be, and who refuses to think of the inevitable end? God has said: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)).
“Just hope it won’t happen” — “don’t think about it”—what poor preparation for the future!
Contrast it with the certain hope of the Christian: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [that is, our bodies] were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Not think about it? Hope it won’t happen? No way! One who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and knows that he has eternal life can hardly wait to see that wonderful, glorious hope fulfilled.
What is your hope?
“ Watch therefore,
for ye know neither the day nor the hour
wherein the Son of Man cometh.”