Remember Your Creator

   Some things God gives often; some things He only gives once. The seasons return again and again, but youth comes twice to no one. While we have it, we rarely think about it; when we lose it, we think of it often. Youth is a time of enchantment, filled with long days of grace—health, hope, energy, carefreeness, enthusiasm—before our troubles begin. Geikie noted that “The world in all its affairs, is mainly what young men have made it,” and then proceeded to bolster his claim with an impressive listing of what young men have accomplished.

Alexander the Great conquered more than all before him and died at 33. Napoleon conquered Italy at 25. Cortes was 30 when he claimed Mexico for Spain. The acclaimed poet Lord Byron died at 37. Newton completed many of his greatest scientific discoveries before he was 25. Luther launched the Reformation in his early thirties. John Wesley began his historic work of revival in England while still a student at Oxford. Etc.

But is there any more striking demonstration of the value and importance of youth than the fact that Christ died at age 33? At an age when many are finally deciding what to do with their life, Christ had finished the greatest work ever undertaken. Not only that, but during the days of His earthly ministry, He appealed chiefly to the young. Very few old folks interact with Jesus in the Gospels, but young men and women were constantly around Him. Art has often done a disservice to the Gospels in representing the apostles as old men with gray hair and aged faces (da Vinci’s The Last Supper is a prime culprit). In fact, the apostles were young men who, before they left the scene, had revolutionized human thought and worked to establish a kingdom greater than the Roman Empire. They had not wealth, nor position, nor learning, nor wisdom, but in their youth they responded to Christ, placed their powers at His disposal, and subsequently spoke words and did things that have never been forgotten.

Christ “called unknown men, in whom the world saw nothing, and He trusted them with what was more than His life—the Kingdom of God. He prophesied their faults with great honesty, but He prophesied also their success. It was an immense demand He made on His young men, but they answered it; it was a daring hope He placed in them, but they fulfilled it” (John Watson).

Some spend their youth sowing wild oats. This doesn’t anger Christ; it breaks His heart. Some, however, use the blessings built into youth to remember their Creator (Eccl. 12.1). As a result, they have a faith that sustains them when the evil days of old age arrive. And they look back on a life well spent.

Kenny Chumbley