Next week, I will officially be eligible for Social Security. It’s something I’ve been working for, ever since, as a freshman in high school, I got my first paying job.

I remember how upset I was at the FICA deduction from my initial paycheck. I didn’t want that money later; I wanted it then and there.

“It’s my money,” I thought. “I worked for it; I deserve it.”

But my mom explained there really wasn’t anything I could do about it. Some day, she was sure, I’d be glad that those funds had been set aside for me.

Now here I am, 50 years later, and I am, indeed, grateful for the extra little bit of help that monthly check will give me.

But, with all due respect to the good folks who administer FICA, they have nothing on the security I have in Jesus Christ — a security I haven’t worked for, and I don’t deserve, but is assured to me by God’s grace.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verses 22 through 28, Jesus is challenged by “the Jews” (read ‘Scribes and Pharisees’) to tell them, plainly, whether or not He is the Christ.

He responds by telling them, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.”

Talk about security! Held in the very hands of the Savior for all eternity.

I’ll take heavenly security over Social Security any day. I hope you will, too.

Don Stanley is pastor of Salem Church at Pine Grove, located at 312 Combs Ferry Road.