Have you ever allowed your mind to travel ahead to the final moments of your life? Have you considered what it may be to stand at the very edge of eternity, with the gate of earthly life closing behind you? When that hour comes – and it surely will – let’s not allow it to come upon us like a thief in the night, finding us unprepared when at last we feel death’s tap on our shoulder.
There comes a time in life when the thought of death can no longer be kept at the far horizon. The days, once counted as though they were without number, are now seen to be few, and the road ahead grows visibly short. Death, which once seemed a distant country to which only others journeyed, now draws near and casts its shadow across our path. It rises upon the mind like a relentless tide – first touching the feet, then climbing higher – until the soul can no longer shut its eyes to the rising waters.
More than a hundred billion souls have already passed through the gate of death before you, and yet, when at last you find yourself approaching that same threshold, it remains a strange and fearful time, shrouded in mystery and shadow. You are alone – no one can carry you through the final gate, and no one can accompany you beyond it. You are drawing near to life’s final and most solemn hour – the great culmination in which all earthly things give way to eternity. One final breath, one final heartbeat – and the gate through which all men must pass has closed behind you. The course of earthly life is finished.
Yet there is a question more solemn still than how a man shall die: What is on the other side of the gate? That gate which has closed behind you does not leave you in nothingness and silence. No – when it closes, you will find yourself standing in the presence of the living God, called to give an account of the life you have lived. The God whose eyes have seen every deed, whose ears have heard every word, and whose knowledge has searched every hidden thought. There will be no crowd in which to hide, no argument with which to bargain, and no one to defend you. You stand alone. Accountable.