“Appointed unto Man…”

 

                As some point all of us have made reservations for something.  Whether it be dinner reservations, hotel reservations or reserving a plane ticket for our vacation.  The purpose of having made a reservation, is to ensure that you have a spot, a table or a seat at a specific time.  The thing with having reservations is that we can cancel them, move them or just simply ignore them. However, there is one reservation that we all have that we cannot ignore, move or cancel.  In fact, this reservation was not made by us, but for us.  It also isn’t necessarily made for a specific time, rather more of a certainty and inevitability.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that this “reservation” or “appointment” is death and whether we like it or not, death is something that that will happen to all of us.  If we dwell on that fact long enough, the thought of the inevitability of it happening can be somewhat depressing.  Especially when none of us know when our allotted appointment will come to pass.  Therefore, how are we to live our lives, knowing that at any given time our name could be called up for that reservation?  We do have a few options; we could ignore the appointment and when our time has arrived be unprepared.  We could also live our lives in desperate fear and anxiety knowing that at any given moment it could all be over, still being unprepared.  Yet there is still one more option; we could prepare ourselves and live each day to the fullest knowing that our appointment will not be a terrible thing, but rather a pleasant thing.  By living a prepared life, we understand that when our appointment does come, we are fully aware that it will be much better after than before.  You see, the writer of Hebrews attempts to explain more fully this reservation in the next verse.  The verse is not as much of a reminder that we have an appointment, but rather a comparison to Christs death.  In that He was offered once for us when He died, yet He will appear again to “save those who are eagerly waiting for Him” (Hebrews 9.28).  When we are “eagerly waiting”, we are living each day with the expectation that He could return and can reward us with a home in heaven with Him.  Sadly, we have more people who are afraid of our reservation than those that are looking forward to it.