The Last Flight
The proof was in the DNA of the two large bones found in October 2008 at the crash site in California. They belonged to the unfortunate Mr. Fossett. In September 2007 he took off in a single-engine plane and just disappeared until a plane-crash site was found. Parts of a plane were found, but that was not conclusive. Not even finding his shoes and driver’s license were absolute proof that Fossett was the man who had died in that shattered plane until the bones were found and tested for DNA. That ended all doubt.
He was a 63-year-old millionaire, an adventurer who notched up 116 records in balloons, airplanes, sailboats, gliders, and airships. He climbed more than 400 mountains and swam the English Channel. But one flight was his last, and he never returned. The largest air and ground search in U.S. history, involving dozens of planes and hundreds of people over an area of 17,000 square miles, failed to find him.
His flight into eternity is considered an accident. He couldn’t fly over this mountain peak, and he didn’t plan on the sight of the mountainside rushing into his windshield. He was planning his next world speed record, but his record making is finished.
You and I will never match or exceed his records. For example, in 2005 he was the first person to fly a plane around the world without refueling. But we will compare in one way. You and I will also have a last flight. He suddenly went into eternity—an unplanned flight. So will we.
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of a man who had great plans for his future. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 12, he said he would pull down his barns and build bigger ones to store the plentiful harvest he had just reaped. He would take it easy and retire on Easy Street.
He said, I have “enough…for many years; take [it easy], eat, drink, and be merry” (v. 19).
God said, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then who will get it all?”
He was so busy that he forgot about God, about his soul, and about the end of this life. The Lord Jesus said the poor rich man was not rich toward God. He abruptly left everything behind and stepped into eternity. No replay possible.
You might not be an adventurous person that does things like Mr. Fossett did, but death is real and there is no guarantee when you will meet it. Many people faced it in the last two years because of a virus called Covid 19. It is true some people were old and not in the best of health, but many young and healthy people also died from contracting the virus, and many others around the world died from other causes.
So, the most important question to you, my friend, demands serious consideration: “Where are you going to spend eternity?”
How much wiser it would have been to have followed the advice in the Bible: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found”! That applies to all ages and conditions, but the day will come when He can no longer “be found.” We are no surer of tomorrow than the rich man nor the flier.
One second after your death it will be a matter of no consequence to you whether you die in a palace or in a cellar. But your whole eternity will hang upon the state in which you die.
There is no denying the fact that “The wages of sin is death”; but it is equally true—“the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Yea, God commends His love to us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died on the cross for us. Divine love would bless the sinner, but divine holiness would not make light of sin. The full penalty of guilt passed upon the sinless Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. He took our place in death and judgment that we might have life. The love of God—the work of Christ—urge you to turn to the Son of God whose words are: “He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
