Occasionally I will hear snippets of words or phrases when my kids are playing or chatting and they just resonate with me. This past summer, the words spoken by my children had me thinking about eternity!
Not too long ago, my son was learning time and measurement. Holding his hands wide, he asked his sister if that was how long forever was. My daughter's response was, "You can't measure forever!" Truer words were never spoken.
When you think about eternity, it is hard to measure with our finite minds. As a pastor, I speak of heaven and hell...but I do not know if I convey eternity in the way that my daughter did that day. We live in a world of time and measure. When we think of spending eternity with God in heaven, I do not think our minds can conceive the true reality of it all. How do you measure the immeasurable? How do you quantify the unquantifiable? Eternity is a mystery we won't completely understand until we stand before the Father!
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
In fact, the Lord has set eternity in our hearts!
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
I think the joy is in the journey. Which can be a problem for me! I'm not a patient traveler. I enjoy the destination but not the journey there. I don't know why that is. I get in the car and I want to get to my destination. As we traveled on vacation this summer, my son kept asking how long it was to various destinations. As we talked about how long it would take to our next stop, he said, "No matter how long it takes, we will be there soon."
Life on this earth is fraught with problems. Some days it seems like you take 1 step forward and 3 steps back before getting hit by a bus. Perseverance is not a sexy word. It sounds hard and--well,--hard! My son's words reminded me that life is short. The older I get, the faster time seems to fly. My journey will be coming to an end. I will be there sooner rather than later. I am traveling home!
As I said, the joy is in the journey. I have become more eternally focused. Not in a maudlin, depressed sort of way but in an excited-to-sit-at-the-feet-of-Jesus kind of way. I also want to see those around me take the same journey and travel home to the Father as well.
Traveling home...a road trip I can get excited about.
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