Daily devotion – Are we prepared for such news?
Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. 3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. 5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.
Genesis is the first obituary column ever printed. Starting with the first man God created, Adam, this chapter then goes on to record another five more times, “…and he died.”
Death was never in the original plan that God had for Adam, but when Adam disobeyed God, sin entered our world and death followed – Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I shared with the Church Wednesday evening the news of a member of our family just diagnosed with cancer and given only 12 – 18 months to live. What was thought to be a simple infection turned out to be the announcement of a rare form of cancer. Incurable!
Now begins 12 – 18 months that so few are prepared for let alone expecting!
Would your life change if you were the one given the news of months to live?
Most of us answer that question too quickly. We say yes—but then we return to life as usual. Yet Genesis 5 reminds us that the clock is already ticking. The obituary line is already written for every one of us: “…and he/she died.” The only uncertainty is when, not if.
The mercy of God is this: He has not told us the date. Instead, He has told us the way.
Adam was created in the likeness of God, but Seth was born in the likeness of Adam—fallen, marked by sin, and destined for death. Yet God did not leave mankind there. In Christ, a new genealogy is offered. A new likeness. A new destiny.
Jesus stepped into our obituary column and rewrote the ending. He took the wages of sin upon Himself so that we might receive the gift of eternal life. Death is still an appointment—but for the believer, it is not a courtroom of judgment; it is a doorway into glory.
The question, then, is not “How long do I have?”
The real question is “How am I living with the time I’ve been given?”
Are we living as though this world is our home—or as pilgrims passing through?
Are we investing in what will burn—or in what will endure?
Are we reconciled to God, walking daily in repentance and faith, or merely assuming tomorrow will give us another chance?
The unexpected diagnosis shocks us into clarity—but Scripture calls us to live in that clarity now.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
Today is the day to make sure your name is written not just in an earthly genealogy, but in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Today is the day to live ready—loving deeply, forgiving freely, serving faithfully, and walking closely with Christ.
Because for every one of us, the line will one day be written.
And then—we will live forever.