grateful for Christ

The author of the book of Hebrews mentions a day called “Today” in which God is to be heeded.  Verse 3:13 (NIV) says that we are to encourage one another daily, “as long as it is called Today,” so that none of us will become “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

It is strange to our ears to think of the present moment as having a name, because a name implies a special significance.  Individual ants, birds, and wildebeasts have no names.  One ant is the same as another ant.  Only those taken as pets might have names, and that is because a pet is an animal specially chosen by a person.

Similarly, Today, or Now, has more significance than any other time.  Now is the most important time, and Today the most important day.  Think of all the other times in your past; they are so many, and yet you remember comparably few.  Only a few days of thousands will be recalled or be “given a name,” if you will, and those only because they held some special significance.  As for the future, it will soon enough become the past.  Why is this distinction important?  What is so special about Now?

Now is the only moment in which change is possible.  We are not sufficiently wise or powerful to do anything but make haphazard stabs at our future path.  Likewise, as hard as we may gaze into the past with hindsight and regret, it cannot be changed.  The only thing we have to work with is Now, and our medium for working is our will.

We cannot particularly change much about Now, but we can choose to respond to God.  Now may be the worst moment in our lives.  We may be helpless, confused, and hurt about what is happening, but if we let those things have their way we will only spiral downward into destruction.  Thankfully, we can turn our gaze to Christ and remember who He is.  As long as it is called Today and Now, no matter our situation, we have the opportunity to choose to place our faith in Him, be faithful to Him, and give Him praise.  Sooner or later our Redeemer will come and turn our present hell into a distant memory.