Eternity is a Very Serious Thing
The late great evangelist and author Billy Graham, once told a story that will definitely make you stop and think it’s message through once again as it drives home the point about how valuable your soul and eternity really are.
Permit me to re-tell you this timeless story and may I encourage you to follow its sage advice and counsel.
A story please………
There once was born into a small and humble family who lived in a small and poor village in the mountain country of Central Italy, a boy who was definitely destined for future greatness. Time would reveal many great truths, blessings, joys, and also some sorrows to this boy as he grew into manhood and beyond. He knew he possessed a God-given talent and ability to communicate with other people and to bless their lives and activities.
The boy came to the United States of America while he was still a young man. He studied the art of juggling and used his talent and knowledge to become famous throughout the entire world.
Finally he came to that point in his life that he decided to retire from the performance of his developed art-form. He longed to return to his home country and settle down and enjoy his senior years in the beautiful mountains of Central Italy. He took all of his worldly possessions, booked his passage on a ship that was sailing to Italy, and then invested all of the remainder of his saved money in a single, huge, high-grade diamond. He carefully hid the diamond in his stateroom with other of his personal belongings.
While aboard this passenger ship during its route of travel, he was showing a young boy how he could juggle a bunch a fresh apples. Soon a crowd had gathered all around him. The pride of the moment, caused from all of the immediate attention, went to the juggler’s head. Oh how he loved all of the audience’s overt attention and praise. He ran to his stateroom and recovered the diamond and returned to the crowd which was assembled on the promenade deck. The juggler explained to the crowd that this diamond represented his entire life’s savings and he started juggling the apples together with the diamond for all to see. Soon he was taking more and more chances pitching the jewel high and higher into the air.
At one point he threw the diamond high into the air and the crowd gasped with fear as they realized where they actually were and how dangerous it was to be so careless with such a valuable investment. The crowd knew what the diamond meant, they begged the juggler to stop juggling the precious stone. Enthralled in and moved by the excitement of the moment, he threw the diamond even higher into the air. Again the crowd gasped and then sighed in relief when he artfully caught the falling diamond.
Having total confidence in himself and his ability, the juggler boldly told the crowd he would throw the diamond up with the apples one more time. This time it would be so high that it would be out of sight for a moment. Again the crowd begged him not to do it.
But with the confidence of all his years of experience, he threw the diamond high into the air. It actually did disappear for a moment. Then the diamond returned into view sparkling in the sunlight. At that very moment, the ship lurched and the diamond fell to the deck, bounced twice, and then dropped overboard into the sea. The valuable stone was lost forever.
We all feel terrible about the man’s loss of all his world possessions. But God Himself compares each of our souls as being more valuable than the all of the possessions of the whole world.
Just like the man in this story, some of us are juggling with our souls. We trust in ourselves and our own abilities and in the fact that we have gotten by before with our careless activities. Oftentimes there are people around us begging us to stop taking such great risks because they well recognize the real value of our individual souls.
But we just continue to juggle and take unnecessary risks one more time and then just one more time again….never knowing when “the ship” will lurch and we will have lost our chance for eternity with God in heaven forever.
Make certain that you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into your own heart to be your personal Lord, Master, and Savior right now. You may not ever get another chance before you die. Insure yourself that once you die, your soul will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ!
Blessings and Encouragement to You………………..