We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies, but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.
~ C. S. Lewis
Benjamin Franklin famously said that “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” The certainty of taxes is true for most people – the certainty of death is true for all of us. Yet most people still live as if their lives will go on forever.
I spent a little time this week looking into our Estate Plan. That’s the polite and non-threatening term we give to planning for the day we’re no longer here. It’s all about what to do with the stuff we’ve accumulated – the stuff we ‘can’t take with us.’
When you think about it, it’s obviously much more important to plan for what we will take with us.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37
More than a parachute
The good news is that God’s gift of redemption is more than just a safety device – way more.
Through Christ’s completed work, we have access to the Holy of Holies of God’s presence – to an intimate relationship with the creator of all things. We get to have an Abba-Father relationship with the Father of Light. In God’s amazing Salvation, He doesn't issue us an insurance policy, but a family – we are joint heirs with Christ! That’s a relationship that we can take with us!
When we insist on piloting our own life it's a lot like flying blind.
It’s time we quit pretending to trust in a parachute. We can trust instead in a relationship with the One who cannot fail!