Letters From Grandpa #513

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 513

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will be about a famous cathedral in Milan, Italy. Wikipedia states: “The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete: construction began in 1386, and the final details were completed in 1965. It is the largest church in the Italian Republic—the larger St. Peter’s Basilica is in the State of Vatican City, a sovereign state—and the third largest in the world." Those who enter the Cathedral today are required to dress modestly. “This means covered knees and no bare shoulders, sandals, headgear, or sunglasses.”

There are three entrances to this cathedral and each has a splendid arch and epitaph. Over one is carved a wreath of roses and underneath the words: “All that pleases is but for a moment.” Over another is sculpted a cross with these words: “All that troubles is but for a moment.” Finally, over the great central entrance is the inscription: “That alone is important which is eternal.” PLEASE DO NOT NEGLECT OR DENY THE WISOM OF THESE WORDS!

I was just telling your uncle David about an experience I had in 1956. (This was the year that your uncle John was born) Granny and I were ministering to a little country church in central Illinois and I got word that one of the wealthy men in our community was coming home from the hospital in an ambulance. I hurried over to his house and was there when the ambulance arrived. He was feeling well enough to visit and proudly explained to me the preparations he had made for death. His vast estate was wisely placed in trust by his lawyer. His large farm, just a few miles from Mt. Pulaski, was already being farmed by Bob Shanle. He had paid the Shawl Funeral Home in Mt. Pulaski in advance for his funeral. He had even made arrangements for his burial plot and headstone. When I asked him if he had made any preparations for eternity he got angry. He bragged that he had only been to church twice in the last 50 years – once to a wedding, and the other time on a bet. I conducted his funeral a few weeks later, and to the best of my knowledge he had made no preparation for eternity! How sad!

Jesus once told the story of a rich man who wore expensive clothes and lived in luxury every day. (See Luke 16:19-31) At his gate was a beggar named Lazarus, longing to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. When they died the beggar went to a place of eternal reward, and the rich man went to a place of eternal torment. How sad! The rich man knew how to make a living, but not how to make a life. He had wisely prepared for the challenges of life, but not the challenge of eternity!

On another occasion Jesus told of a rich farmer who had a bumper crop. The rich man said: “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

This is not rocket science! In our life on earth “all that pleases is but for a moment.” There is an old joke about the sailer with a hang-over. He was on his hands and knees, hugging the toilet and violently vomiting. He explained that he had been out with his friends “having a good time.”

In similar fashion, in our life on earth “All that troubles is but for a moment.” Jesus said: “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she

forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.” (John 16:21) In our earthly body we “groan” longing to have a new body in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1-5). In fact “The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth.” (Romans 8:22) Fortunately, our earthly problems are not eternal!

THE FACT IS – “THAT ALONE IS IMPORTANT WHICH IS ETERNAL!”

Though I have mentioned it before, let me remind you again of Pascal’s Wager. Blaise Pascal was a famous French mathematician. He was born June 19, 1623 and died August 19, 1662. He was only 39 years old. At the age of 17 this brilliant child prodigy wrote an essay on synthetic projective geometry which caught the attention of the great thinkers of Europe. Between 1642-1644 he invented the first calculating device. Among his many other contributions to science he developed rules for probability calculations and invented the roulette wheel. This discovery enables casinos to program their gambling devices to pay out anything from 0% to 99%. For example, there are more than 900,000 slot machines in the United States. In Las Vegas slot machines produce over 70% of casino revenues. Pascal’s genius makes it possible to play one of these slot machines forever and never beat the house. As an expert in analyzing the odds, and recognizing that it was impossible to prove whether God exists, Pascal reasoned that it was wiser to wager on God and be wrong than the other way around. He correctly concluded that it was wise to risk so little, in order to gain so much.

You didn’t ask to be born, but you were! You may not want to die but you will! You are therefore trapped into gambling one way or the other. The late Jim Elliot said it succinctly: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”. Please prepare for eternity!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce