There was a newcomer in the town basin among all the other sailing boats. She was sleek, shiny and polished and everyone wondered who she was and where she had come from. She was beautiful, a real lady if ever there was one!

There was a notice pinned to the bollard she was tied up to giving her name, port of origin and owner’s name. She had come from overseas across the Pacific Ocean and found a haven in our Town Basin. There was no doubt that she was very well cared for.

There were articles about her and her owners in the local papers and as time went by she became a fixture, and part of the landscape. We always looked for her as we went by. Nearly nine months went by, and it was announced that she would leave for warmer waters before our winter months. A new motor was installed, and the engineer who did the work shook his head as he looked at the engine bed. “I can’t in all good conscience sign this job off” he said, “I don’t like the look of the bottom of this boat”.

The captain took no notice of these forebodings, and announced he was leaving shortly regardless. He went further north to another popular harbour, and slipped out into blue waters disappearing over the horizon with people barely realising he was gone.  However, he did keep in touch by radio for the first few days.

He had left New Zealand waters by this time and a tropical cyclone was forming in the seas to his north. He made one last call giving his position before the storm hit. Then there was nothing more. Silence.  The yacht was never heard from again. People searched by plane and boat for some weeks without finding anything.

We think this is a tragedy, and so it is. Yet there are millions of people getting ready for the greatest journey of their lives just polishing the surface of their ship without going any deeper to make sure that the ship is seaworthy at the bottom of the hull. We must ask ourselves if the hull of our life is seaworthy enough to get us there. And if we do get there, has the Harbour Master of our destination received our advance papers of entry? Will He recognize the name of our ship as we pass the harbour entrance?  How sad to arrive only to be told, “I don’t know you, your certificate of entry has not arrived ahead of you!”

Jesus himself said this….         Not every one that says unto me, “Lord, Lord”, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your  name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works?”

And then will I profess unto them, “I never knew you: depart from me, you who work iniquity”. (Matthew 7:21-23)

 What does the certificate of our arrival say?  And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has  the Son has  life; and he who has  not the Son of God has not life.   (1 John 5:11-12)

How do we get this certificate? We just have to apply for it, ask for it, as simple as that! And what’s more it is freely given when asked for sincerely and wholeheartedly.