No more junk food

Since Jesus was a prophet he spoke the truth straightforwardly with power. Whether those who heard him would agree or not was beside the point. To those who had come from the “Feeding of the 5,000” (as it became known) and found him at Capernaum, he said in language easy to understand, “You’ve been trying to find me not because of the miracles I did, but because I gave you all you wanted to eat” (John :26). And I don’t think he had a smile on his face; he wasn’t joshing them. Then he added a line that could serve as a motto for all who would live as he lived, “Do not work for the food that is here today and gone tomorrow, but for the food that produces eternal life” (v. 27).
         How many times do we have to be reminded that naked we entered this world and naked we leave. That is simply what is. Time is that infinitesimal moment barely discernable over against the vast expanse of eternity that provides that critical moment in which we do, or do not do, the only thing of genuine importance.  As the opportunity flashes by we grasp just enough to yield to the loving embrace of God, or we don’t. Tragic. But, for the moment, let’s put it in slow motion. The days come and they go. We grow, we change. We work, we play. We grow fond of our “progress” in learning, which began with 0 and is now racing ahead to 0 plus 0.0001, . . . however, in time we lose even that.
         I know this sounds dismal, but apart from that one moment that determines eternity, as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes intoned, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Think about what that moment of decision could involve. Majil was a neat small town girl. Her parents were not connected with the local church, but she behaved herself with proper decorum and, at the close of her senior year in high school, came to our town (somewhat larger) to attend college. Her aunt, a friend of my mother, was a believer and aware that heaven was for those who would gladly accepted it by faith. She called and asked if we would make her feel at home in a new town and we did. About a month after the phone call, having heard the gospel and being touched by the Spirit, she opened her heart to Christ, made friends, married a soon-to-be missionary and spent her life in Haiti telling people there that God loved them and sent his Son to pay the price for their sin. Just a moment, that’s all, a moment of decision, but it was God’s moment and she responded with an open heart.
         We all have our moments, do we not? If you count the endless opportunities to serve the less fortunate coupled with the privilege of sharing with others the Grand Old Story, then each of those moments was, and will be . . . .  there‘s no real synonym for “forever” is there? And that’s because it is . . . forever. As Jesus said, “No more junk food,” or, put a bit more elegantly, “Do not  work for the food that is here today and gone tomorrow, but for the food that produces eternal life”