With the dawn of a new year approaching, I’ve been reflecting on the closure of 2022.
Over the Christmas holiday, I visited with some folks who deal in a variety of business. One of the common themes were: “end of fiscal year,” “end of calendar year,” and “close of business day.”
As most of you know, I lost my dad in December of 2021. I don’t know how to explain it, but mentally, I have never closed out 2021…yet here we are in 2022, ready to start 2023.
The phrase “at the close of business day” kept popping into my head.
I was doing a Bible study one evening and it referred to the duty of us as Christians to be busy about the Father’s business. Could it be that someone who has been so absorbed in grief has forgotten why they are still here?
Luke 2:49 says And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
Jesus knew his time on Earth was limited. These words are the first in which He reveals his consciousness of his supernatural birth. You and I, if we are spiritually regenerate people, adopted into God’s family, have the same Father as Jesus. In fact Jesus said to his disciples in John 20:17 “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God.” So now we have the same spiritual Father as Jesus. The question then arises: “Must we, as children of the Father, share the perspective of Jesus that “we must be about our Father’s business”?”
Jesus said to his disciples after the resurrection, again in John 20, this time in verse 21: “As the Father sent me, so I send you”.
What then is the business of the Father? Jesus commanded us in the book of Matthew 28:19-20 by saying “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
My dad’s work is over with here on this earth. Everything God intended for him to do, was done. I am so grateful that for 46 of his 77 years I was blessed to share in that life. God has left you, and me here for a reason…will we squander the days away? Or, will we make them count for eternity?
So, as we close out 2022, let us remember that at the close of the spiritual day, what will have mattered most was if we committed our lives to Christ and were busy about the business of the Father.
