MUSINGS

THE VALUE OF LIFE It was affecting to see in a cemetery in a Cornish village a tombstone marking the grave of a babe who had lived only seventeen hours. It reminded one of Paul’s words, “How untraceable his ways!”, Romans 11: 33. That babe, with no responsible history, was covered by the value of the precious blood of Christ. Mr. Coates remarked as to such, ‘They have been marked out for a place in His universe of bliss which they will occupy throughout eternity to His glory and praise’ (‘Letters’, p.391).

But your life and mine have been prolonged, and if God created that little life of seventeen hours to yield something for His glory, what is He receiving from the extension of our lives? “For thy will they were, and they have been created” (Revelation 4: 11)—that is the reason for our existence, that we should yield pleasure to God and live for His will.

We contemplate the unique life of Jesus, so short, but infinitely rich in its fruitfulness to God. As He neared the end of it He said to the Father, “I have glorified thee on the earth”, John 17: 4. Each day of that life in its varied excellence had yielded freshly and richly for the Father’s pleasure. Then we think of Christ’s devoted follower, Paul, who, in the spirit of his Master, wrote from the prison in Rome, “as always, now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death”, Philippians 1: 20.

The question for you and me is whether our lives are consecrated, so that they are not being wasted and frittered away, but are taking on something of the lustre and enduring worth of devotion to the will of God.

FCM