What Can Be Found in a Dash?

When we look back at our lives, what do we see? A funeral sermon I recently heard gave the illustration about the etchings on a tombstone or on a headstone found in a cemetery. Those engravings on its surface usually list the deceased’s name, possibly a small design, and the age, but it always includes the date of the person’s birth and the date of the soul’s departure. Those two dates are separated by a hyphen or a dash. All of that individual’s life is represented by that small chip in the rock. All the history of that person’s life is condensed into that tiny glyph. Each breath that has been taken from the cradle to the grave, from the first moment to the last is represented by that tiny etched line. Each deed that a person does, each act whether good or bad, each second of that individual’s life on earth, and each accomplishment is portrayed in that small mark in the granite.

Once that person dies nothing more can be added or changed to that earthly record. Nothing more can be added to the record of our lives. All the things that we meant to do will never be accomplished and never be realized. Anything we’ve put off until tomorrow will never happen. Making amends with someone with whom we’ve quarreled, taking a special vacation to a specific place, or how about asking for salvation? Once that dash is chipped into place, accepting Christ Jesus as Savior will never happen. There will be no excuse God will accept once that dash is carved and separates the date of our birth and our death. Either our name will be entered into the Book of Life or not. Nothing else will alter that fact. The choice must be made before the stone carver completes his work.

Jesus is God’s only begotten Son, and was sent to earth in the form of a man to reconcile sinful people to the Father, to be reunited with God. Jesus was the ultimate payment for our sin debt. He died that we might live eternally as God the Father’s adopted heir to life in heaven.

If we don’t choose Christ, the one and only way to obtain redemption, we choose to remain in our sins and reject the freely offered gift of salvation. We’ll have chosen to accept the punishment that our foolish and sinful life has earned. The payment has already been made, but we must decide to claim it. Christ can be your personal Savior. To reject him is to choose an eternal punishment in Hell. You must decide before that dash is completed.