Genesis records that Methuselah lived 969 years, and his name is often connected with the coming of the flood. Did his name predict that judgment? Did he die before the rain began? The ages in Genesis let us connect his final year with the flood year, but they do not settle every question about his death. I want to follow those figures carefully and give the proposed meaning of his name the same scrutiny.
Methuselah in the Biblical Record
Methuselah was Enoch’s son, Lamech’s father, and Noah’s grandfather. His father walked with God and was taken without seeing death. His grandson obeyed God’s warning and led the household preserved through the flood. Methuselah stands between them in the family line Genesis traces from Adam through Seth, the son God gave after Abel’s murder.
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.” After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis records no human life longer than Methuselah’s. It also tells us that he had sons and daughters beyond the son named in the genealogy, so this is a selected family line rather than a list of every person who lived. The ages connect one named generation to the next, while the later births show that the families were larger than those names alone.
We are not given Methuselah’s occupation, a speech he made, or an account of his worship. His relationship to Enoch and Noah does not establish his own faith, and Scripture does not say he helped build the ark. I would like to know those things, but neither admiration for his family nor curiosity about his long life can supply the missing information.
The repeated ending of these lives also deserves attention. Adam’s sin brought death, and the entries repeatedly close with “and he died.” Enoch’s entry interrupts that pattern because God took him. Methuselah then reaches the longest recorded span, yet his entry still ends with “and he died.” His extraordinary age did not free him from the death that came into the world through sin.
The Chronology of His Life and the Flood
I use the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the traditional Hebrew text underlying our Old Testament, for this chronology. Methuselah was 187 when Lamech was born. Lamech was 182 when Noah was born, which makes Methuselah 369 at his grandson’s birth. Genesis then gives Noah’s age when the flood came.
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark– they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in. Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.
The calculation is 187 plus 182 plus 600, which equals 969. That is Methuselah’s entire recorded lifespan. Using those ages, his death falls in the same year as the flood. We do not need to choose a date for creation on a modern calendar to establish that connection.
Counting the elapsed years from creation through the Genesis 5 ages puts Methuselah’s birth at 687 and Noah’s at 1,056. Add Methuselah’s 969 years to 687, or Noah’s 600 years to 1,056, and both calculations reach 1,656. Some ages differ in other ancient textual traditions; I am following the Masoretic figures rather than substituting another chronology for the Hebrew base text.
Those figures also show how many generations shared Methuselah’s lifetime. He was 243 when Adam died and 300 when Enoch was taken. Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, and Jared all lived during part of his life. Lamech died when Methuselah was 964, five years before his father’s death. The genealogy connects families whose lives overlapped for centuries.
The year of Methuselah’s death is therefore a sound conclusion from the recorded ages. Its exact date and cause are different questions. Genesis does not tell us that he died seven days before the rain, on the day the ark’s door closed, or in the floodwaters. We should not turn the matching years into a sequence of events the text never supplies.
Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their sons’ wives were the eight people preserved in the ark. Methuselah was not among them. His life had ended by the time the judgment was complete, but he could have died beforehand or in the judgment itself. Neither possibility tells us the condition of his heart. We know how old he was without knowing how he died.
His Name, Enoch, Lamech, and Noah
The Hebrew name מְתוּשֶׁלַח is usually written Methuselah in English. Its etymology, or origin and meaning, is disputed. Strong’s lexical entry connects it with words for a man and a dart or weapon. That gives the familiar proposal “man of the dart,” also expressed as “man of the javelin” or “man of the weapon.” The Brown–Driver–Briggs entry itself treats that explanation as uncertain and considers a Babylonian origin more likely. We should not make even the familiar dictionary explanation more certain than the evidence allows.
The popular sentence “when he dies, it shall come,” or “his death shall bring it,” goes further. It divides the name into proposed verbal parts and expands them into a prediction. That is not a secure translation of the written Hebrew. The coincidence of the death year and flood year explains why the proposal attracts attention, but arithmetic cannot establish the origin of a name.
Genesis sometimes records a parent’s explanation of a child’s name. Lamech said of Noah, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands.” He connected that comfort with the ground the LORD had cursed. There is no comparable explanation of Methuselah’s name. Genesis does not say Enoch named his son in response to a revelation about the flood.
Enoch did receive and proclaim a warning of judgment. Jude records it directly.
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Jude calls Enoch “the seventh from Adam.” Counting Adam first, the line proceeds through Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, and Jared to Enoch. Judgment was proclaimed in those early generations, and Enoch’s warning speaks of the Lord coming to convict the ungodly. Jude does not attach that prophecy to Methuselah’s name or say that his son’s lifespan measured the interval until the flood.
Genesis says Enoch walked with God for 300 years after Methuselah’s birth. It does not tell us why his walk is described from that point, so we cannot assume the birth brought a prophetic warning that changed his life. What Hebrews explains is how he pleased God.
By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Paul wrote Hebrews and identified faith as essential to pleasing God. Enoch was taken without seeing death. Noah believed a warning about events he had not yet seen and prepared the ark for his household. Their faith concerned the God who spoke and the response He required, rather than confidence in their family standing.
Enoch was 365 when God took him, and Methuselah was then 300. The son’s total lifespan exceeded his father’s by 604 years, but he still died. We cannot measure faith by longevity or assume the person who lives longest is the one God most approves. The study on Enoch gives fuller attention to the father whose faith Scripture does describe.
Lamech’s life also helps us keep age in perspective. Methuselah lived another 782 years after fathering him at 187. Lamech’s own 777 years ended five years before his father’s. Even among people who lived for centuries, being older did not determine who would die first.
When Lamech named Noah, his hope for comfort concerned the painful labor of a world under God’s curse. Noah’s life and the events surrounding it would bring relief, but they would not remove sin from the human heart. After the flood, God still described its imagination as evil from youth. The explanation attached to Noah’s name is recorded; the explanation often attached to Methuselah’s is conjecture.
Methuselah lived through Noah’s first six centuries, while the world became corrupt and God commanded Noah to prepare an ark. Second Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness, and Hebrews describes his obedient preparation. Those ministries belong to Noah in the biblical account. Methuselah’s life overlapped them, but that does not tell us what part he took in them.
His 969 Years and the Judgment of Noah’s Day
I read Methuselah’s age as an actual human lifespan. Genesis consistently records a father’s age at the named son’s birth, mentions later children, and gives his total years and death. Nothing in that form identifies 969 as the length of a dynasty or a symbolic number. Replacing years with months would also leave several patriarchs fathering children while still young children themselves.
The surrounding ages belong to the same pattern. Adam lived 930 years and Seth 912, while Enosh reached 905 and Cainan 910. Mahalalel lived 895 years, Jared 962, and Lamech 777. Methuselah’s 969 is the highest recorded age among them. Lifespans decline over the generations after the flood, though Genesis does not identify the biological cause.
A vapor canopy, unusually high oxygen, genetic conditions, and particular diets have all been proposed as explanations. None is given here as the reason these men lived so long. I can affirm the ages God recorded without treating a scientific proposal as part of the passage. The study on the age of the earth considers the wider chronological framework.
Before describing the flood, Genesis records God’s warning about the world’s growing rebellion. His words about the duration of human life need to be read in that setting.
Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
God said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever,” and then gave man’s days as 120 years. Some understand a period remaining before the flood; others understand the shortening of human life. An immediate limit of 120 years for every individual cannot account for the lives that follow. Noah reached 950, Shem 600, Abraham 175, Isaac 180, and Jacob 147. Moses lived 120 years, but even after him some lived longer. The decline was gradual.
The countdown interpretation fits the approaching judgment and the warning that God’s striving would end. It does not identify an exact starting date in relation to Noah’s age or tell us how many years he spent constructing the ark. Both readings must account for the context and the later ages. Neither verse nor interpretation explains Methuselah’s 969 years as a promised delay of judgment.
The reason for the flood is stated far more plainly. Human wickedness was great, and every intent of the thoughts of the heart was continually evil. That corruption produced a world filled with violence. God’s grief was not ignorance or surprise at discovering human sin; He saw its evil fully and judged it rightly.
Within that corrupt world, Noah found grace. God warned him of the coming judgment and gave him instructions for the means of preservation.
This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark–you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Noah did what God commanded, preparing the ark with room for his family, the animals, and their food. God had specified the dimensions, the arrangement of the decks, and the supplies he needed to gather, and Noah followed those instructions. The study on Noah and the ark examines those instructions and events more fully.
Genesis dates the flood’s beginning to the seventeenth day of the second month in Noah’s six hundredth year. The fountains of the great deep broke open, the rain fell, and the waters covered the mountains. This was a worldwide judgment, as the earlier quotation from Genesis 7 describes, and only Noah’s company survived among humanity. The covenant that followed had the same worldwide scope.
And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
When God told Noah to leave the ark, he brought out his household and the animals. His first recorded response afterward was to build an altar and offer burnt offerings. God promised the continuing cycles of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, and day and night while the earth remained. Human hearts were still sinful, but God would preserve the conditions in which human life continued. He then addressed Noah and his sons about the covenant and its sign.
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
The rainbow was the sign of God’s covenant with Noah, his descendants, and every living creature. God promised never again to destroy all flesh by a flood. Judgment had fallen, yet God preserved life and bound Himself to the promise He made.
Looking back to the time before the flood, First Peter explicitly describes God’s patience: “the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” We do not need the uncertain explanation of Methuselah’s name to establish that God was patient. Nor does Peter say God prolonged Methuselah’s life to postpone the flood as long as possible.
That patience had an end. God shut Noah in, the waters came, and the world of that time perished. Another day without judgment is an opportunity to repent, not evidence that God has forgotten what He said. I should receive His mercy while it is offered instead of assuming that the time I want will always be available.
The Genealogy Leads to Christ
Methuselah’s place in these events is preserved beyond Genesis. Chronicles opens with the same family line, though it does not repeat the ages.
Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The sequence places Methuselah between Enoch and Lamech, followed by Noah and his sons. Chronicles treats these as real ancestors, and Luke later includes Methuselah in the human ancestry of Jesus. Luke works backward from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, through David and Abraham, to the earliest generations.
Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Semei, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
A genealogy can seem remote when most of its names come without much personal detail. Yet those names represent actual births, households, and generations. God preserved this line through Noah’s family in the flood and continued it until the Savior entered the world. Methuselah’s place in that line gives him a connection to Christ without making him a prophet or savior himself.
Luke’s genealogy is the only New Testament passage that names Methuselah. The other passages we have considered speak about Enoch’s faith and prophecy, Noah’s obedient preparation, and God’s patience. Their emphasis should keep us from assigning Methuselah the roles those men were given. We cannot turn him into an ark builder or an end-times type merely because he belonged to their family.
Luke describes Jesus’ relationship to Joseph as supposed, preserving His unique birth while tracing His place within humanity. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man. His genuine humanity did not involve any sin of His own. He alone can be our Mediator, the One who brings us to God.
Adam brought sin and death into human experience, and Methuselah could not overcome death by living for 969 years. Christ entered human life to save sinners and rose bodily after giving Himself for us. He offers more than an extension of life under the curse: through Him we are reconciled to God and receive eternal life.
Jesus drew a warning from the days of Noah, but He did not make it depend on Methuselah’s lifespan or name.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Eating, drinking, and marrying were ordinary activities, not the crimes for which the flood came. The danger was carrying on with life without heeding God’s warning, until the judgment arrived. Jesus told His hearers to watch and be ready because they did not know the hour of the Son of Man’s coming.
I cannot turn Methuselah’s chronology into a timetable for Christ’s return. Genesis gives the flood’s date within its account, while Jesus withholds knowledge of His coming day and hour. Readiness means belonging to Christ and living faithfully before Him. Trying to extract a prediction from a disputed name can distract us from the response He plainly requires.
What We Can Say and Where We Must Stop
We can say that Methuselah lived 969 years, that the Masoretic ages place his final year in the flood year, and that he belongs to the ancestry of Christ. We cannot establish his exact death date, the cause of his death, or his spiritual condition. The popular prophetic explanation of his name remains uncertain, even though the matching years make it memorable.
I need to keep those conclusions at their proper strength when I teach. Readers should be able to tell whether I am explaining a stated fact, calculating from recorded ages, or considering a linguistic proposal. An impressive explanation is no improvement if it leaves them mistaking conjecture for God’s Word.
Methuselah’s age also makes me consider what I expect more time to accomplish. Years are a gift, but living longer cannot save us or guarantee that we will eventually repent. Scripture shows us real judgment and the refuge God provided, then directs us to Christ.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us–baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
Peter says Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. He also recalls God’s patience while the ark was being prepared and the eight people preserved through the water. When he calls baptism an antitype, he is describing a corresponding picture. He expressly excludes mere outward washing and directs our attention to a good conscience toward God through Christ’s resurrection.
Water baptism follows salvation as identification with Christ; it does not produce the new birth. Neither a ceremony, a faithful family, nor skill in biblical chronology can reconcile us to God. Salvation rests in Christ, whose death and resurrection accomplish what no descendant of Adam could accomplish for himself.
Wicked men physically tortured and punished Jesus before killing Him. He willingly bore that real punishment for our sins in His innocent body and shed His blood. His saving work through His blood and death was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus.
Christ died for the whole world, so God’s offer of salvation is genuine for every person. People can resist and reject His grace, but everyone who repents and believes in Jesus is forgiven and born again. Regeneration means that genuine new birth, through which a person becomes a new creation. The Holy Spirit indwells and seals the believer, whose salvation is eternally secure. Obedience shows evidence of that life rather than earning it or keeping a person saved; calling ourselves Christians is no excuse for lawlessness.
Our hope therefore rests in the Savior whom the genealogy reaches, not in our ancestry or the length of life we may receive. Related studies on Noah and the ark and the age of the earth explore the wider events and chronology.
My Final Thoughts
The ages give me confidence that Methuselah died in the year the flood began. They do not tell me whether he died before the rain or in the judgment, and his name cannot securely be translated, “when he dies, it shall come.” Even the longest recorded human life ended, while God’s patience reached its appointed end in Noah’s generation. Yet the family line that includes Methuselah leads to Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God who gives eternal life to everyone who believes. I want the years God gives me to be lived in faith, without assuming I will always have another day to respond to Him.