A Touch of Eternity

Children are a gift.

This is not an opinion. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like a reality. But it is truth. God says so and that settles it.

Hopefully, many of you can list a great number of personal and specific examples of ways that your children are gifts. But there is one that we can often overlook. So, for all your parents reading this, let’s reminisce a bit.

Think back to the birth of your children. I know for me, with each of them, there was this amazing, meaningful, pregnant moment when the momentum of labor and delivery all stood still. It happened once each of my children were wrapped up and lying under the French fry warmer.

What was it that filled that moment? What caused my heart to stand still and my eyes to fill with soggy wonder…every time? It was a touch of eternity.

There is something profound about witnessing the birth of a part of you that will, in most cases, carry you beyond your lifetime. There is something “extending” about the birth of a child. There is an awareness of our smallness…of a generation that will live beyond us. In the birth of our children, our minds and our hearts are stretched beyond the span of our years and we understand our finitude…and that God’s gift of children stretches it beyond us.

Yet, even our “stretched out” finitude is finite. And our children, should they outlive us, will still come face to face with their finitude. And so will their children, in the same way our parents did and we are currently. Though having children stretches it a bit, we’re still left in the same reality as the previous generation…and the next. We’re finite.

But we serve an infinite God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the God of Mark, Andy and Rob. The God of David of Bethlehem is the God of David of West Chester. He hasn’t changed and He is no closer to His end than He was when He created the world.

As parents of children that hold the potential to stretch our finitude into the next couple generations, we have a choice to make. Will we train our children to stretch our finitude or to proclaim God’s infinity? Will we raise them to proclaim our legacy or God’s? Will they be better known as sons and daughters of Rob or sons and daughters of God?

Children are a gift. And we will send that gift on as a time capsule to the future. When the future opens it, will it find artifacts of a time gone by or will it find the living Word within them?

That all depends. Will we commit to stretch our finitude? Or will we commit to God’s infinity? I suggest this: that we as a church send our children into the future beyond us firmly committed to God’s infinity. That we set aside our aspirations for a personal legacy and entrust it to God. That our thoughts of what our children say about us be traded in for thoughts of what our children say about God. That God’s infinity become a preoccupying parental thought each day. We will have all of eternity to enjoy the fruit of such a commitment.

90 Candles

Billy Graham recently celebrated his 90th birthday. He was born when Woodrow Wilson was president and World War One was coming to an end. He has lived a long life. But it isn’t simply the number of his days that is worthy of attention, but how Billy has numbered his days.
In a recent interview he described his view on growing old.

Someone said to me recently that the most exciting part of his day was waking up and discovering what was hurting today that didn't hurt yesterday! Sometimes I can relate to that. But seriously, I'm thankful for each day, and I'm thankful for the measure of health I do have. Every day is a gift from God, no matter how old we are.

Here is a man who once traveled the world, preached the gospel to more than two billion people and counseled presidents, but can now rarely leave his home due to multiple hip replacements, prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease. He remains grateful for the health he has and considers every day a gift. His words and example convict me.

I've discovered that just because we'll inevitably grow weaker physically as we get older, it doesn't mean we must grow weaker spiritually. In fact, we ought to be growing stronger spiritually, because our eyes ought to be on eternity and Heaven—on the things that really matter.

There’s his secret. The decline of our physical life does not mean our spiritual life must decline. In fact, aging is a tool God uses to bring death into view so that we see beyond death to eternity and Heaven. This should have a wonderful, sanctifying effect on our attitude towards aging. Consider how Billy turns weakness of old age into strength.

One of the things I miss most is that I can no longer read, due to age-related macular degeneration… it is hard for me to pick up my Bible and read it like I used to, and I miss that very much. But I probably pray as much now as at any time in my life, if not more—not just definite times of prayer, but all during the day.

This is a vivid picture of the heart of wisdom that Moses petitioned God for in Psalm 90. It comes from the ‘numbering of days.’

As I've looked at my own life, and the lives of others, I've come to realize that the time to prepare for old age isn't when it arrives. By then it may be too late. The time to prepare for old age emotionally and spiritually is before it hits us.

How am I preparing for old age – and eternity beyond? How are you? May our answers be similar to our mission as a church: Treasuring, Proclaiming and Growing in Christ until that day when we see Him face to face.

Happy birthday Billy, and thank you.

The Best is Yet to Come

On November 18th, Gina and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. Like birthdays and New Years, anniversaries offer a time to reflect on a variety of things. One thing that both of us have been pondering is how much greater our love is now than it was 13 years ago. Oh, we were in love then, but the love is more pervasive now…more encompassing…more tangible…more real.

And so you can understand my initial disappointment when reading Matthew 22:30:

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

I quite enjoy my relationship with my wife…and we’re still depraved sinners. I could get very excited thinking of our marriage in the absence of sin, or signs of aging, or diminishing cisterns of energy. Marriage in heaven would be incredible! But, according to Matthew (and Mark and Luke), Jesus disagrees.

I’m comforted that the scholar who penned the ESV Study Bible notes for the Gospel According to Matthew understands my plight.

This teaching might at first seem discouraging to married couples who are deeply in love with each other in this life, but surely people will know their loved ones in heaven (cf. 8:11; Luke 9:30, 33), and the joy and love of close relationships in heaven will be more rather than less than it is here on earth. Jesus' reference to “the power of God” suggests that God is able to establish relationships of even deeper friendship, joy, and love in the life to come. God has not revealed anything more about this, though Scripture indicates that the eternal glories awaiting the redeemed will be more splendid than anyone can begin to ask or think (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9; Eph. 3:20).

This causes me to stop and listen to what I’m actually saying. I’m saying that a discovery about Heaven disappoints me. That somehow, from my very limited, very temporal, very sin-stained perspective, what we have now will be superior to what God has for us in eternity.

And then it hits me. Not only is my thinking of the joys of Heaven limited, but my thinking about marriage is limited, too. The very thing that marriage is meant to depict will be a fully-realized reality in Heaven. My entire relationship with Gina, and yours with your spouse, will be fulfilled. And, once fulfilled, God has something even better in mind for the redeemed. What that could be is very hard for me to imagine as what He has currently given is so incredible.

In the end, I’m reminded of another truth that humbles me. I am often very guilty of thinking too small. My eyes can focus on the now, especially when the now is either really bad…or really good.

John Piper nails it in his new book, This Momentary Marriage, when he says:

There never has been a generation whose general view of marriage is high enough. The chasm between the biblical vision of marriage and the common human vision is now, and has always been, gargantuan.

The infinite God is infinitely kind to His weak, small-minded, finite creation. In our failure to view marriage highly enough, He allows us to enjoy real love…real fellowship…real companionship…in this momentary marriage. That’s kindness.

So, I will look forward to Heaven with eyes of faith that God has something more grand for His redeemed than my small mind can handle. And to my lovely wife Gina, I have one thing to say…ENJOY ME WHILE YOU GOT ME!

Following the Thread

Beauty has a magnetic affect. A gorgeous sunset, a powerful piece of music, great art—they draw us in. The longing in our souls for something higher, better, unlike ourselves, primes us to want more of it. But if I’m not careful, they can draw me into the thing itself instead of into its author, the Eternal God. The emotions and longings the roaring ocean evokes in me can lead me to become a lover of nature, rather than a lover of God. The inspiration that floods the soul after a good play or a great book or a lovely song can make me a lover of theater or literature or music—only. My temporal nature gets lazy and stops at the creation instead of following the golden thread back to its Source, the Master Creator, Singer, Writer, Composer. God is the source of all joy.

A friend and I were commenting on the media’s growing ability to control our emotions. Our conversation turned toward the widely acclaimed Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. The majestic, almost magical quality surrounding the character of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings attracts us. There is something right in the royalty this earthy man carries in his veins. Hollywood has done its job well to portray something utterly convincing and attractive to us.

But do we trace the thread? Do those majestic, triumphant feelings meet us again in our times with the Lord the next morning? Do we marvel that no beauty on earth is unsurpassed in heaven? Does our breath quicken as we consider that the magic and mystery of Tolkien’s characters are paper dolls compared to the blazing glory of our God? Did the slashing royal sword bearing the name Sting raise our adrenaline in the theater seat? Sting would crumble to pieces before the sword described in Revelation, wielded by the One called Faithful and True. He is the Rider of the white horse, whose eyes are a flame of fire and who is crowned with many crowns, the one who is followed by all the armies of heaven.

I’m always grateful for the reminders that Jesus is not an androgynous figure in a white gown surrounded by lambs. He’s not a good luck charm or a wise teacher or a distant deity. He is fearful and beautiful, holy and glorious. And amazingly, He has descended from his throne to purchase my hopeless soul, declaring me not only a subject, but a sister, an heir, a beloved.

The most powerful emotion, longing, joy, or inspiration, is a long-cast shadow from heaven, meant to point us to the Beautiful One.

Why Thinking About Eternity Makes My Brain Hurt

Bloggers Note: This week the Family Life Blog is looking at our finiteness against the backdrop of God’s Infinity. Let God be Big!

Did you ever tell yourself, ‘I need to think about eternity more’. So you close your eyes and begin to ponder the great timelessness…and then wake up half an hour later having dreamed about eating cheeseburgers? Well, maybe its just me.

In his small classic Redemption, Accomplished and Applied, John Murray offers some reality check on our confidence that we can ponder eternal existence.

“We cannot think in terms of eternity; we have no eternal thought. Only God’s thought possesses that attribute because he alone is eternal. When we try to think of eternity we realize the limits of our understanding and we are reminded that eternity is incomprehensible to us. But we must think of eternity and think of it in such a way that the more we are aware of the limits of our understanding the more enhanced becomes our appreciation of the marvel of God’s eternal purpose and grace.” (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 92)

Do you see the helpful wisdom he is giving? We can’t think eternal thoughts – our imaginations are bound by the time realities this side of heaven. We can ponder; we can wonder, but we can’t grasp eternity. But rather than discouraging us, these limits should fuel our worship of the One who is Eternal – and the one whose purpose and grace is to one day introduce our puny minds to first hand experience of timeless joy!