James 4:14

... whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

The uncertainty of tomorrow was stressed by Jesus who said of the grass of the field, "It today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven" (Matthew 6:30); and both Peter and James discerned the spiritual overtones of the teaching, Peter saying, "All flesh is as grass" (1 Peter 1:24), an idea certainly inherent in what James declared here. How ephemeral and uncertain is life! James, following in the example of Jesus in drawing illustrations from nature, illuminated his teaching with the metaphor of vapor, a fog or mist. How present, real and tangible is a heavy ground fog; yet three hours later the sky may be clear for a thousand miles in all directions. That's the way life is. Poets of all ages have marveled at the brevity and uncertainty of it. Shakespeare said:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more.[28]

Despite the propensity of men to discourse on this subject, however, nothing ever written surpasses in beauty or power the noble words of the New Testament in this passage.