Times,Seasons,Eternity

I remember in my youth that I always seemed to have an eye for the future. I had the sense that I was preparing myself for something that would inevitably blossom much further down the road. In my middle years there was time to reflect on the past and at the same time future goals were still there to be had. As I enter my senior years I begin to feel a squeeze on what's ahead. My mother is approaching 90 years old and her conversations pretty much revolve around the years that have passed and that is understandable. Time on this side of eternity is measurable to us because most of us do not have a firm grip on eternity. It's too nebulous and not much fun to think about because for the most part even the experts are clueless.

I almost have to stop and reason with my finite little mind about what is really going on in the world around me. There are patterns in life and someone clearly designed those patterns. The four seasons are a clear indicator of the cycles in our nature as well as the seasons in life. There are principles of life and death that encompass the whole animal kingdom. Everything has been set neatly in place to perpetuate all of creation. I rely upon these visual aids to reinforce my belief that God has also created a progression into eternity for mankind as well. We will never be able to hide from the fact that there is a beginning and ending to life on earth. I remember as a little boy thinking about how long it would take me to become an old man. It seemed like an eternity to me. I'm not an old man right now but the reality of aging is certainly sinking in fast. I've done a few things to preserve my youthful look. I've never dyed my hair. It's been gray to white for the last 20 years. I figured that when I turned 60 that I would look the same and everybody else would look different. Ha! I was right! That's one small consolation anyway.

The merging of your beliefs with your timeline becomes more and more significant as life goes by. I can't imagine the fear that exists in folks that do not know the Lord. I know that some people are so hardened in their heart that they cannot even see their own eternal demise but the majority are still out there wondering a bit about what is to come. We cannot avoid the inevitable and we cannot determine our own fate without some serious thinking. God in His mercy gave us this incredible freedom to pick and choose as we participate in His life creation. As I look back over my history, everything can be measured by the choices that I made. There was a definite cause and affect to all of those. God gave me the privilege of choice and I am grateful for that. My choices made me significant. Our choices make all of us significant. God would have it no other way. He just wants us to choose Him in the process and that choice has eternal significance for sure.