US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article first published on ASSIST News Service, looks at what it means to live in the light of an eternity with God…
Grove, Oklahoma, US
Via ASSIST News Service
“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” – John 6:35 (NIV).
PICTURE: Kremen Vrankar/Unsplash
A recent post by a Facebook friend led me to respond. She posed this question: “Do you suppose our life here on earth is a training program for eternity?”
After thinking about her question, I responded, “Yes, I absolutely believe this, Jan! I am so grateful God doesn’t stop loving us when we mess up. He takes our messes and turns them into a message…a masterpiece to glorify Him!”
We can try to hide our messes from God but He knows. This anonymous quote says it all: “Our life here on earth is going to determine what our eternity is going to be like. God knows the real truth about each of our lives. We may fool our friends about our goodness, but we can’t fool God.”
If we think we can hide or run away from God, we’re not fooling anyone. Remember the very first couple who tried to hide from Him. Adam and Eve, after eating the fruit from the forbidden tree, had their eyes opened to their nakedness.
Trying to hide their nudity, they covered themselves with fig leaves. Then, when God came looking for them in the garden, they hid from Him.
“One of the greatest truths in life which we all know, but which we all must come to learn, is that there is no escape from God,” says Pastor Steven J Cole. “Like fugitives, we may run, but we cannot ultimately hide from the God who penetrates even the darkness with the gaze of His light. If we manage to dodge Him in this life, we must still stand exposed before Him on that fearful Day of Judgment. There is no place to hide from God.”
We take for granted our next breath. Our focus is on worldly things and not eternity. In Colossians 3:2, the Apostle Paul tells us to set our “minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
And edvangelist Billy Graham offered this reminder: “We are so caught up with the affairs of this life we give little attention to eternity.”
Too many of us forget our lives are “just a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then vanishing” (James 4:14).
Where does the time go? My oldest granddaughter just turned 16. Her father will be 43-years-old in May. I will celebrate my 67th birthday later this year. Surely that’s not right. But it is.
One birthday after another should remind us that there are no guarantees in life. We wake up one morning and look in the mirror and wonder: When did my hair start turning grey? Wait a minute, when did that new wrinkle show up? Why can’t I read the tiny print on the toothpaste tube?
Last year was filled with heartache for me, as I lost two good friends to cancer. One passed a few days before her 67th birthday. That hits close to home for me.
We can become discouraged by our aging bodies, by the loss of loved ones, by troubles from every side, or the current state of affairs in the world. But we shouldn’t lose hope.
Author and speaker Jennifer Rothschild reminds us of this. “When I feel discouraged, I remember Earth is short and Heaven is long. In light of eternity, time here is fleeting so I focus on the longer, perfect reality that awaits me!”
While “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9), we can rest assured of a perfect future with our Heavenly Father. That’s why we should live our lives in view of eternity.
