This was something I read today while doing research for my book.  

(I was researching Eden and the Great Flood and this popped out of my reading.)

"The names of the descendants of Adam through is son Seth down to Noah all have meaning.  Ray C. Stedman analyzes these names in his book Understanding Man.  

'...a way of escape (for man) is indicated again in a most fascinating way in this chapter by the meaning of the names listed.  There is some difference among authorities as to the meaning of these names, depending upon the root from which they are judged to be taken.   But one authority gives a most interesting sequence of meanings.  The list begins with Seth, which means "Appointed."  Enosh, his son, means "Mortal; " and his son, Kenan, means "Sorrow."  His son Mahalalel, means "The Blessed God."  He named his boy Jared which means "Came Down," and his boy Enoch, means "Teaching."  Methuselah, as we saw, means "His death shall bring;" Lamech means "Strength," and Noah, "Comfort."  Now put that all together:  

God has Apointed that Mortal man shall Sorrow; 

but that The Blessed God, Came Down, Teaching, 

that His Death Shall Bring, 

Strength and Comfort'

Then the author continues to say: 

"Is this book from God?  God has given you and me a life to watch just as Methuselah's generation watched his.  It is your own life.  God has written "Methuselah" on each one of us.  "His death shall bring it," or "When he dies, it will come."  How far is it till the end of the world for you?  When you die.  That is the end of the world.  That this the end of man's day.  It is fifty years from now, ten, tomorrow?  Who knows?  But at any moment, when he dies, it will come."

I think this is very interesting.  

First of all, the meaning of names is fascinating to me anyway - but that there is a line of names directly from Adam to Noah that sort of spells out the coming of Christ - pretty cool stuff.

Now, I get that there will always be people reaching to make connections and meaning out of something that isn't necessarily there - but the IDEA is what gets me.  The idea that there was some hand in the naming or the round about prophesying of  what was to come.  Scary and cool all at the same time.  

This is what makes me think about how fragile we all truly are.  That I could literally "meet my maker" in five minutes if that was His will.  Wake up twenty-somethings who think you're invincible!!!  Guess what!  You are mortal! 

    

This is what makes me think about my purpose.  What does my name mean?  And by that, I mean, what does my character, my actions say about my life?  How does that point to the inevitable truth that we are a) all gonna die someday relatively soon and b) we will all be judged for how we spent our lives.  Has my life been truly glorifying to God?  Or a major disappointment?  

And that leads me to ask the question of myself "am I ready?"

I don't know - maybe a little too deep, disjointed or a little too morbid for my usual blog, but that's what's on my mind today and I wanted to share it.  You know, just toss it out there into the void and see what happens.  And hey, it's not like I've got all of life's questions figured out.  "We write to understand," right?        

But I do want to leave you with this question:  Are YOU ready when that time comes?  Are you prepared?