"It Won't Make Any Difference"

A few years ago, while visiting my late wife in the nursing care facility where she resided, we discussed where our final resting place would be. Because I was a Vietnam era veteran, both of us could be buried at Fort Bliss cemetery here in El Paso with very little cost to us.

In our conversation, she asked me if we would be buried in close proximity to one another. I replied, “I don’t know, but it won‘t make any difference how close or how far away we are from one another when we‘re buried in the ground.”

She then asked me why.

I responded by pointing out to her that since the whole creation, including the earth, will be burned up with “fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:10), it won’t make any difference how far or how close our graves are to one another — they will be decimated.

However, the more important question regarding our burial will be, “What was our spiritual condition when we were put down into that grave?”

Beloved, now that’s something to seriously think about, taking any necessary action to get our life right with God today while we’re still here on earth (2 Corinthians 6:2; cf. 2 Kings 20:1; Isaiah 38:1).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets