Life is short.  Our lives have so little time and our journey is brief.  Because life is so short, we can’t afford to waste time struggling and learning things the hard way.  Instead, let’s discover the easy way to live a full life, a life filled with God’s peace, by using a secret clue hidden inside one little-known sentence in the Bible, but scattered in plain view on many of the ancient hills throughout Israel’s countryside.

Let’s unlock the secret by imagining several thousand years ago, walking through the Israeli country with your small band of family and friends, looking for a place to call home.  You would have three essential requirements: fresh spring water, fertile land near a trade route and a strategically defensible hilltop where you would build your homes and settle down.

Over time the king or ruler would build a wall on the perimeter of the hill to surround and protect the homes.  As the town grew, it would eventually become an attractive prize for invading armies.  After an invader plundered and destroyed the buildings, many years would pass and eventually, new people would come back to these same strategic sites (because the water, the fertile land and the defensible hill were still essential) where they would rebuild new, bigger walls on the old foundations and then rebuild their homes inside the relative safety of those walls.

As the century’s passed, the hills would get bigger and bigger as larger towns and small cities were built on top of the refuse of the old ones.  Modern day archeologists call these ancient hills a “tel” – like the modern city of Tel Aviv, in Israel.

When you walk on these hills and tels, you cannot help but to immediately see jagged, broken bits of pottery scattered all over the ground.  These pottery pieces are clearly not stones but are man-made as their sides look rounded, formed and shaped like a cup or a plate to hold water or food.

I put three small pieces of broken pottery in my pocket and brought them home as souvenirs. Then I set them on my windowsill where they sat untouched and unthought of for about a year-and-a-half.

But the other day when I was in the middle of my prayer-time, for some unknown reason, I noticed and put them in my hand and began to contemplate:  Who created this pottery – was it family made or purchased from a shop keeper?  Was this once a cup, a bowl or a plate?  How did these pieces break?  Were these pieces two, three or four thousand years old, and how long had it been since anyone gave any thought to the people who used this once valuable property?

Then my thoughts shifted to my own relatives, as I thought of how little that I really knew about my own grandparents, and how I knew almost nothing, not even the names of my great-grandparents.   All these thoughts certainly made me think, “Life is so short.”

I’m sure I held these broken pottery pieces for a half hour as I contemplated the brevity of life.  Especially, how I make such a big deal out of little things, how much struggle there can be in life.  I thought about my brother, Mike, and my dad, both of whom had died just a few years ago.  I thought about my family and possessions – my job, home and plans for the day – how all of it is so fleeting compared to eternity.

And of course, my need for eternal God was made so very clear.  Then, almost as if I was following a treasure map without even knowing it, I opened my daily prayer book and turned to the reading for the day, which just happened to be the very famous Psalm 31, which Jesus quoted on the cross when he cried out to God, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” ^{Luke 23:46 and Psalm 31:5}   

 

To describe this Psalm, it resonates with a deep and personal trust for God in the middle of life’s struggles.  It is like a cry from King David who was in trouble, almost as if David is pleading, “Life is short and I need you, God.”

The words were so appropriate for how I was feeling, but then came the big secret, the unexpected surprise as the Psalm went on, “I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.” ^Psalm31:12.

I blinked and read it again.  This Psalm talked about “broken pottery,” – like the broken pottery from Israel that I still held in my hand!  Like my own personal little miracle, I felt that God winked at me and said, “I’m glad I have your attention” and I started to cry.

Out of 783,000 words in the Bible – this is the only place where broken pottery is mentioned.  Surely it was no coincidence!

And as the Psalm continued to speak of the brevity of our lives and our need for God, the words of the Psalm seemed to flow as it said, “My times are in your hands.” ^Psalm31:15   Yes, my times, your times, and all of time is in God’s hands!

Like the long-forgotten pieces of broken pottery that I still held in my hands, everything in my life and all that I hold dear is in God’s hands.  Could there possibly be better hands, where we can rest our short lives?  Could there possibly be better hands where we can rest for all of eternity, than the loving hands of God!

Yes, life is short.  And our times are in God’s hands if only we will let them be.  What an amazing peace that can come over us by following Jesus example, no matter our health, our finances, victories or troubles.  When we put our lives in God’s hands, we can find a depth of peace that goes so far beyond time.

No wonder Jesus’ very last words come from this Psalm as he said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” ^{Luke 23:46 and Psalm 31:5}    Out of all the final things that he could have possibly said, what incredible last words of Christ.  That he knew all of eternity was in God’s hands, and he committed himself and his spirit back to God.

You see – Jesus gave us the real secret to real peace, eternal peace that trumps the struggles we experience in the midst of our short lives.

And the great news, is that we too can give our lives to God – right now – today.  Perhaps we can say these words out loud together:  Father, into your hands I commit my day.  Father, into your hands I commit my marriage.  Into your loving hands I commit my family.  Into your strong hands I commit my work.  Into your tender hands I commit my heart.  Into your forgiving hands, I commit my relationships with others.

Let’s pray.  Dear Jesus, please help me to always and forever remember that life is short.  My days are short and my years are fleeting.  Help me Lord, to give you my heart, my thoughts, my work, my family and all that is dear to me.  I want to be like you, Jesus.  Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.