Even though he could not tell time, my three-year-old grandson was wearing a watch when I visited. Later, when I was putting on my coat to leave, I asked him what time it was. He looked at his watch blankly, then brightened. "It's time for you to go," he answered triumphantly. (Internet source)
Before we hear our great task master speak those words we have some things to do. I believe the best preparations for judgement day are simply to serve others using our time, talents and treasure as stewards of Jesus Christ.
"Life is like a three-layer cake. When you are young, there are two layers between you and death. Then your grandfather dies, and there is only one layer. Then your father dies. You are on top," says Gary North in "The Top Layer of the Cake".
In an essay filled with wisdom North quotes his grandmother on his 25th birthday: "You will be 30 before you know it." Gary admits, "I was 50 before I knew it."
"Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed that an exception would be made in my case. Now what?" said William Saroyan, a pronouncement which he allowed to be published posthumously.
To switch this from a fatalistic banter to a purposeful reflection I will introduce North's change of the question, "Now What?" to "What next?"
What next? Leads us to ponder what it is we wish to accomplish in this world and what it is we will leave as a legacy to our children and the world. That is what we need to work at during the second and third layer of life's three-layer cake.
In my life I hit the top layer at age 26. Perhaps that helped my focus. "The third layer is the period of finalizing the legacy," North says. So it was that I began a writing career while still teaching.
When you are on the top layer, the clock should tick louder. Even though your hearing is declining, you should hear that clock. In the second layer we should be working on our legacy.
If you don't have time, North suggests, "take a pair of wire cutters and cut the wire on your television set (Unplug it first)." Budget your time! Everyone gets 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Near the end of his essay North suggests how immortality or legacy can be attained through a blog site or web site. Face book or You Tube, if you must.
There is nothing wrong with fame and notoriety, but to the Christian a different legacy appears: Lay up treasure for yourselves in heavenfor where your treasure is there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:20).
This is the twist I add to North's Three-Layer Cake metaphor. Where he concludes: "There is no layer between you and the darkness," I interject: "There is no layer between you and the light!"
