James 4:14

"Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." James 4:14

Years ago, I saw a scene that was a definite Kodak moment and I wanted to take a photograph. On this particular morning the rising sun was muted by a fog that rose from the water. The water was perfectly still, reflecting the pleasure boats docked on the opposite shore. The mist caused a sleepy, mellow, winsome feeling to come over me. On that particular day I did not have my camera with me. I thought to myself"surely this scene will be repeated sometime this summer.

So, every day thereafter my camera was my ever present companion - and was never used! The only place I can visit that particular moment is in my memory. So it is with our lives. James says we are a vapor - a mist - a mellow fog. We are here today and gone in an hour or so never to return again. Even so, our lives are not to be wasted. The fog on that morning so long ago had a purpose. If nothing else, I can retreat to that river bank and refresh myself in it's coolness.

James tells us that it is important to live our lives for today - not in dissipation and self-centeredness - but in service to the King of kings. It does no good to fret over yesterday - it's gone and can never be brought back, like the fog in my missed photo. There is no practical purpose served in worry about tomorrow. It will come in it's own time bringing with it sufficient things for us to do. Such worry only drains our energies that we need for today. James says today is where it's at! We need to direct our efforts into today, for today and what we do with it is the only thing that we can do something about. Another thing about our lives being a vapor, what we do on this earth will be short lived. Very few of us will ever be written up in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Very few of those who do will be found in it 10 years after our first appearance. Only what we do today that has eternal value will last. That job that is so important to get out this week - it will be forgotten by next month. That cake that has to be just perfect will be nothing but crumbs at the end of the meal. The car that we spend so much time and effort on - just a pile of rust in 10 or 20 years. What's important is the love we give our spouses and our children.

What's eternal is the Word of God that we plant in their lives. What makes a difference is what we do for Jesus today.

These can not be measured in dollars and cents, but in treasures laid up in heaven where bugs and rust cannot destroy them. That's how we need to view the "vapor"we call today. Amen and Amen.