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What projects do you have planned for this year? We need to redo the floor in our kitchen, I want to finally finish the barnyard fence for our sheep, and I have some major maintenance projects to do on my combine harvester. We began work on the fence two years ago, I have had the combine parts for 8 months, and the problem with the kitchen floor is something I have known about way too long to mention!

It always seems there are not enough hours in a day, there is always some emergency that comes up, and when I finally get few hours to spare, I find myself puzzling as to where to start on my overwhelming to-do list.

Around the time I was starting to make my plans for this year, I came across the following verse:

…the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

2 Peter 3:10  made me think about all the things I have been pouring my time into. The animals I help as a veterinarian will sooner or later die. The farms I work for, if they are still around at the return of Christ, will be destroyed by fire; and that fire will take my combine and our house too (this could be depressing if your life’s work is focused on accumulating material things).

Yet, even if the events of 2 Peter 3 happen long after our lifetime, I realize from personal experience that the games and concerts we have been running our kids to will eventually be forgotten, and the ribbons and banners won at fairs will someday be lost in storage (discouraging if you live for accomplishment).

If our goal is seeing something tangibly done at the end of the day, our work can get very burdensome. Every day we have to feed our sheep and our kids, and what do we have to show for it? A sink full of dirty dishes! We can spend the morning washing, drying, and folding the mountain of clothes in our bathroom and an hour later the kids come home and there are again dirty clothes strewn around the house. All that work and nothing to show for it (frustrating for those who like to check things off their to do list). Is there any lasting significance in our toil?

The answer to this question would be “No” if this life is all there is, for Psalm 103:15-16 says:

The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.

It is true that after we die, this world will quickly forget that we ever existed, but Jesus remembers. In Matthew 25:34-40 Jesus speaks of a time after his return, in which he commends believers for what they did for Him during their lives here on earth, saying:

Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? … a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?...  and [Jesus] will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

Jesus is telling us that our work is significant when it is done out of love for our Lord and our fellow man. Weary parents, according to Matthew 25, when you feed, clothe, and care for your children, you have fed, clothed, and cared for Jesus!

It is not the material stuff of this world that is going to last, but rather love shown to Jesus and the people He loves. Does this mean that if you are a carpenter or a banker your work does not matter that much? Of course not. Any job done out of love for Jesus and to help people is significant in Jesus’s eyes, and He will remember it forever. We just need to remember as we work, where the priority is; it is in the people, not the stuff or our agenda. If you do your work this year out of love for Jesus, it will last!