Puritan Henry Smith writes:

All are not saved by Christ’s death, but all which are saved are saved by Christ’s death; His death is sufficient to save all, as the sun is sufficient to lighten; but if any man wink, the sun will not give him light.

The sufficiency of Christ’s death is what is key, not necessarily the intention.

Like the sun’s illumination, Christ’s death bathes all mankind in the opportunity to see, and understand and believe and be saved. Even though there are a huge number of people who will walk though life with their eyes tightly shut, there are still many who will not.

I attended a funeral today. I was hired by the family to photograph the occasion. It seems that the family is scattered abroad and many members couldn’t return for the funeral. So they thought the best option would be to document the service.

The funeral held was for an elderly woman—a sister in Christ—and a mother. The occasion was bittersweet. Waves of remorse rolled right along side waves of joy.

During the service, a close family member rightly used the occasion to preach the Gospel. By that I mean he used the opportunity as a springboard to present the hearers with an invitation to Christ. He did not go into great exegetical detail, or even follow any specific biblical thought. But the intentions were obvious and the message was clear.

This reminded me that birth and death are really the only things that give us humans any real context for existence. It is a very peculiar thing to be alive—to exist at all. One day we don’t exist anywhere, nor has anyone here even thought of us. Then all of a sudden we do exist, until one day our body dies and as far as the human mind knows on its own, we go back to not existing.

Existing is taken for granted; most rarely even think of how weird it really is. It becomes only natural to see here and now as the end all be all of everything. It’s not hard to see how the spiritual can be pushed hard to the back of a persons mind.

It’s only when faced with birth and death that people’s eyes really forced open to the context of our existence. It’s in those moments especially that people’s hearts seem to be the softest and we would be fools to neglect such an opportunity.

In Colossians 4:5 we’re taught to “make the most of every opportunity.” How much more life’s most crucial opportunities?

I hope that at my own funeral the discussion will be less about me and more about what Jesus has done for me. And, that the opportunity in other’s lives will be seized to preach His Gospel of grace and love and forgiveness to them as well.