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By Rev. Todd Fletcher

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve submitted a column because the truth is, the past couple of weeks have been difficult. As I write this, I’m preparing to go preach the funeral of a young mother who was tragically killed in an automobile accident. As reality has set that this is real it has been shocking, to say the least; none of us saw this one coming.

While processing the news of her passing I was reminded of a song that took the world by storm in 1989 when a young country artist named Garth Brooks released the hit single, “If Tomorrow Never Comes.” If you’re not a country fan or you’re not familiar with it, the song was about a man wanting to ensure that the love of his life knew just how much he loved her if he didn’t make it another day. It really puts the brevity of life and what’s really important into perspective and provides us with a sobering reality that we all need to consider. Death is inevitable for us all.

Yet, Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has placed eternity in the human heart, so it’s difficult for us to think of a time when our life will end. In our minds, we’ll just go on living forever. But the sad reality is that ever since the fall of the human race when sin entered into the world, death has been a looming reality for us all. The writer of Hebrews reminds us “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Yet none of us knows the day nor the hour in which the Lord will call us out of this life and into eternity so we must consider where we will spend that eternity if tomorrow never comes.

When our proverbial number is called and our time on earth is through it won’t matter how much wealth we have accumulated, and it won’t matter how many good works we have done. There is but one thing that will matter, what we did with Jesus while in this life. Here’s how He put it: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

So what are these treasures in heaven? They are the fruits of a life lived for Jesus Christ. This life begins when we turn away from sin and place all our hope and faith in Christ as the only Savior of the world. From this point, it is built on a life of continual faith in Him as we live in such as way as to please the One who saved us. This is the only thing that will matter if tomorrow never comes.

Don’t waste another day chasing after the wind, put all your hope and trust in Jesus today and you will have treasure in heaven that will last for all of eternity. And in doing so you can know that your eternity is secure in Christ, even if tomorrow never comes.