If you looked on the sides of El Morro, a tall sandstone cliff in the wilderness of New Mexico, you would find the phrase “Pasó por aquí,” inscribed in the rock over and over again followed by the name of some person travelling through the remote area and the year they visited the rock. It means that he or she, “passed by here.”
The first Spanish traveler to inscribe their name was a Spanish conquistador named Don Juan Onate searching the southwest for a fabled city of gold in the year 1605. Other Spanish travelers followed over time and would likewise carve their names using a knife or a horseshoe nail. Many would likewise carve the same phrase “Pasó por aquí” next to their names.
So many people carved their names in the rock face from 1605 to 1906 that the rock reads like a ledger from a history book, and to preserve the site the rock was made a National Monument.
Most early travelers would never have the opportunity to pass by El Morro a second time.
Hauntingly Quick!
There is something hauntingly transitory about the phrase, “Pasó por aquí.” There is something hauntingly transitory about our lives too. The best we can say of any place we have been is “Pasó por aquí.” All of life is transitory. We can’t hold onto the present moment and keep it from slipping into the past no matter how hard we try. We can’t live forever. All of life is passing away.
We are all travelers through time on our way to eternity. This is why the phrase “Pasó por aquí,” aptly describes us.
Many who later carved their names into the rock were pioneers headed west to California. We are all headed elsewhere too. That somewhere else is eternity. What we do with Jesus Christ will determine where we spend eternity.
Those who come to believe, obey and honor the Son of God will spend eternity in the bliss of heaven. Those who remain in unbelief and reject the Son of God will be cast into the outer darkness of hell.
“Oh,” you might think, “I don’t want to be bothered with thoughts about a heaven and a hell.” The problem with this way of thinking is we are only passing through this life, and in the long run, the best any of us will be able to say is, I “passed through here.”
Like it or not, this life will not last forever. Prudence demands we give serious thought to eternity.
Good News
Here is good news for sinners passing through this transitory scene. The eternal God became man. In a moment of time God became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born in a manger, grew up in poverty and obscurity. For three and a half years He preached the gospel, healed all manner of sickness and infirmity, and did miracles like calming the sea and multiplying a few fish and loaves to feed a vast crowd. Then He was betrayed and taken by cruel men and slain on the cross. The Son of God came to earth and did all this so that sinners may have a way to return to the God who loves them. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). He came down from heaven so that He could bring us up to heaven to live with Him forever.
When a sinner is converted to Christ they get their name written down in a book called the Lamb’s Book of Life. Only those whose names are written in this book will ever be welcomed in heaven. A few thousand years from now the names inscribed in El Morro will be gone and not a trace of them be found. But the names in the Lamb’s Book of Life will never disappear, not for a thousand days, or a thousand years. Those whose names are written in it will enjoy God for eternity.
This life is short and we are all travelers to Eternity. “Pasó por aquí,” is truly spoken of the passage of each human being through this world. Will you believe in the Lord Jesus so that when this short life is over you may live with Him forever?
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