2017 is already two weeks old and the idea of everything being fresh and new is getting off to about as good of start as my car on a -20 degree morning.  I shouldn’t be surprised though, it is not as if the New Year started with a bang.  Our family was watching the clock countdown and the program switched to a local fireworks display so at the stroke of midnight we were watching an ad for a car dealership.  I drank my sparkling grape juice and went to bed at 12:04 because the next day was Sunday and that is my work day.
I mean 2017, it is hard to really have motivation to change when I did not even think I would still be here.  I grew up in a church that watched all the Rapture movies and there was no way that we were going to make it this long before the return of Jesus.
So why am I writing this today (besides the fact that it is my turn to do the Harvestime Blog.)  I heard a statement once that said, “The days drag on but the years fly by.”  Hard concept to understand if you are young, but the older we get it proves itself to be true. (If you understand this concept, it kind of proves the point of whether you are young or old, but I digress).
The Bible is pretty clear about the brevity of life.  It calls it a mist, a vapor, a weed that blooms and quickly dies.  Yet, during this brevity, our eternity is determined.  The actions we do each and everyday determine our reward in how we are going to know Christ throughout eternity.  One blogger said that you can’t take it with you but you can send it ahead.  Here is their story:
“In the Apostolic Era, the famous convert to Judaism King Izates of Adiabene sent an enormous sum of money to Jerusalem for famine relief. His brothers and countrymen criticized him for squandering the family inheritance. His reply, recorded in the Talmud, reveals influence from the teaching of Yeshua:
My fathers stored up below and I am storing above … My fathers stored in a place which can be tampered with, but I have stored in a place which cannot be tampered with … My fathers stored something which produces no fruits, but I have stored something which does produce fruits … My fathers gathered for this world, but I have gathered for the future world.” (b. Bava Batra 11a)
So 2017, lets see what we have. Times at the gym? “0” Healthy meals of salads? “2”. Awesome countdown shows to ring in the New Year? Definitely “0” Reading through the bible? I am in Jeremiah, but that is where I started. Being rich in Christ? By His grace and power,innumerable times already and by His grace and power I will continue as long as this vapor called Kim Buckman exists. So, Happy January 15, and may each day be rich in Christ.