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
We are in this world but we are not to be of this world; rather we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, setting our minds on the things above.(Romans 12:2). This can be so hard. The demands of life add up, snatch time away from us, and next thing we know a year has come and gone and a new year has begun.
What always amazes me, when reflecting over a past year, are the moments that I remember. They aren’t always the big moments that I remember with the most clarity. The small moments, the minutiae of life, are usually the things I remember. They are the moments I laughed with my husband until I couldn’t breathe. The moments of pure relaxation reading a book on the bank of the river in the summer. The quiet moments sitting by a campfire, sharing a meal with friends. These are the moments in which time stands still; when all else fades away, and for a moment there is no such thing as time. It is in these moments when we get the best glimpse into what eternity will be like. These precious but ordinary moments are what I think eternity will be like.
When I met my friend’s little new born son for the first time, I asked her if she felt like she had always known him and she said yes. God has planted eternity in our hearts—something within us knows this world is not all we were created for, and we do sense this about others. We feel a weight when we truly connect with others; when we hold a newborn, when we engage in a meaningful conversation with someone, when we are helping an older person, we can sense that these people aren’t just creatures like our pets (and I do love my pets!) but these people have something eternal planted within them that our souls recognize.
Society and individuals today try to play down the sanctity of life—of the preborn, of the elderly, or of those who are terminally ill. Hastening the end of the lives of individuals is a big deal. It’s the biggest deal. We aren’t just playing with the things of this world, we are messing with the eternity of others.
Like C. S. Lewis said, “If I find within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” This can make us uncomfortable. We are very used to this world; but let it make us bold, not uncomfortable. When things are spoken to us in conversation which we know is not in step with what we are told in God’s word, let us always be bold enough to proclaim the truth, gently and lovingly, but firmly. After all, when we stand before the judgment throne in heaven do we really want to confess that we didn’t share our faith, and perhaps plant the seeds that changed eternity for someone else because we were embarrassed? Of what?
Eternity is something we have to deal with in this world. We don’t get another chance to deal with it after this one. This is our one shot to decide where and with whom we want to spend it. We plan our weekend, our years, our careers, our lives, but we must also plan for our eternity. May this truth help us bravely share our faith with others. This is their one shot for eternity also.
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
I like the snow. I know, that’s not a popular opinion to hold but it is true. I really do like and enjoy it. We have had a very snowy winter in Pennsylvania thus far and not just a snowy winter, but a rather icy winter too! While I may be a fan of snow, I draw the line at ice. You can more or less drive in the snow but ice—not so much.
We had an ice storm a few weeks ago and it threw everything off. Schools closed, the interstate had restrictions on travel, and I had to cancel a whole day of work because everything was coated in ice and I mean everything! Power lines, trees, cars, our walkways were all coated in a thick layer of glittering ice. Then we got snow—about eight inches on top of the ice.
Getting inches of snow on top of ice does not make for the easiest snow removal but you know what it does make the best for? Pictures! The ice acted as an adhesive for all the snow and the snow and ice clung to the branches of the trees, bushes, and everything else. As the sun came up, everything was glittering, shining, and silver-coated; the trees were so beautiful that you could scarcely take your eyes off of them. The whole landscape looked like it had been kissed by God’s glory.
The snow and ice in the trees hung around for a few days and the winter landscape in Pennsylvania never looked so beautiful, at least not in a while. I was marveling at the beauty of it as I was driving a few days after the storm. The snow really does make everything look better! There is an old building in need of major repair not too far from my house, but when I came around the bend and saw it covered in snow, I couldn’t tell that the building wasn’t in the best of conditions. The snow had covered, at least superficially, the building’s stains and imperfections.
The Pharisees of Jesus’s day were like the snow-covered building. They acted holy but their hearts were not pure. Jesus came to purify our hearts—not to give us a superficial covering. When we act like our good deeds will save us, we are acting like the Pharisees. What did Jesus say about the Pharisees? In Matthew 23:27Jesus says they are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but full of decay inside. We are like a crypt—before we learned how to embalm! Would you want to venture into one of those?
That is what we are in God’s sight but for Jesus. When we truly turn our lives over to Him we are no longer like the stinking tomb in the eyes of our Father but a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17). We are covered in the blood of Jesus and as beautiful as the world after a snow and ice storm.
God loved us so much that He sent His Son, not only sent but demoted His Son to this world—to a lowly station—so that we might believe in Him and thereby live with Him eternally. He could have left us to be like the rotting tombs but He didn’t. He cared and loved us too much to leave us to that destiny. Jesus willingly came to earth so that through Him the world could be kissed by God’s glory. When we accept Him and put Him on the throne of our hearts and live according to His commands, we reflect His glory to all.
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Proverbs 27: 17 NIV
I’m sure you have heard of Milton Hershey and if you have not heard of Hershey himself, then I am sure you have heard of Hershey Chocolates—the company he founded—and you may have even heard of the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, where his chocolate factories were originally located and all of his chocolate was produced.
Like so many entrepreneurs, things had not gone smoothly for Milton Hershey; he had tried to start companies before and his first two companies had gone bankrupt. By the time he started Hershey Chocolates, most of his friends and family, who at one point were willing to financially back him, had had enough of his business ventures and would no longer help to support him in these ventures.
Milton Hershey had started working in a candy shop at the age of 14. He started a candy business and it flopped; he moved to Denver, Colorado and it was there that he learned how to make caramel with milk. Returning to Pennsylvania, he started making the caramels and selling them from a pushcart. After three years of selling from a pushcart, he started the Lancaster Caramel Company. He continued to work in this business and dabble in chocolate-making for the next 16 years. Finally, he sold that business and started the Hershey Chocolate Company. This business finally took off! After so many years and failed attempts, finally something was working! But then, one of his employees and friend decided to leave—to start his own candy shop. This candy would use Hershey’s same chocolate recipe but would encase a smooth peanut butter filling in the center. Hershey’s friend’s name who started this? You guessed it—H.B. Reese, maker of the Reeses cups. Instead of getting mad at his friend for using the expertise Milton had taught him to start his own candy company, in the same town yet, Milton still extended friendship to Reese. They created a mutually beneficial relationship with Reese buying his chocolate from Hershey to make his Reeses cups.
How would you have responded if you had been in Hershey’s shoes? I think I would have been mad! But Hershey had the wisdom and maturity to not overreact and instead he leaned into the friendship, and believed the best about Reese, that he was not out to topple Hershey’s empire but rather he was chasing his own passions and dreams, and it led to deepening their friendship.
Sometimes God places people in our lives to challenge us. In Proverbs we are told, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17 NIV). Sometimes our friends will challenge us in ways that we like, that make us think of things in a new way. Other times being sharpened by another person won’t always make for the most comfortable experience for us, but it will stretch us beyond our comfort zones, teach us patience, and ultimately shape us into the people God has designed for us to be.
The next time a friend or acquaintance does something that you weren’t expecting and that you frankly don’t like, try to remember they are most likely not doing it to hurt you. Most likely they are just living their life. Extend a little grace, perhaps talk to them about your feelings if it is appropriate, and remember to extend Christ’s example of loving others. Look for ways in which God could use this experience to grow and shape you to be who He wants you to be—who knows what could grow from your efforts!
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Meaningless! Meaningless!”, says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
Ecclesiastes 1:2
“You have to love the book of Ecclesiastes. Here is the second verse after the introduction; “Meaningless! Meaningless!”, says the Teacher. “Utterly Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” Wow! How is that for an uplifting sermon! No wonder we only ever hear the one verse, “To everything there is a season,” quoted from Ecclesiastes. No one wants to hear that life is meaningless. This reminds me of a conversation that I had with my husband a few months ago. We had just gotten home from a lovely, weekend-long marriage retreat and were unpacking and getting ready for the upcoming week when some of those lines from Ecclesiastes floated through my mind about how meaningless the substance of this life is. Then I remembered Paul’s words in I Corinthians 7:7-8 “I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.” He wishes we could all be single, and therefore better able to focus on God’s work than this temporal relationship! He then goes on to list a bunch of guidelines that the church had requested to help them get along and live in God’s plan for them.
All this was going through mind and since I am prone to speak my mind in all things, I promptly said to my husband who was still basking in the glow of what a nice relationship-focused weekend it had been, “Do you ever think about how pointless this all is? We spend all this time and effort—in the case of marriage, a lifetime to maintain a good relationship and then we die and there isn’t marriage in Heaven as far as we know so all of this doesn’t even really matter. We could just save ourselves all this trouble by never entering into these earthly relationships to begin with.”
He was visibly, and understandably alarmed with where this all this could be going. Luckily for him, that was the end of my deep thoughts and I had no more such “encouraging” words to pour into our relationship at that time. My husband is much more optimistic than I am. He is a ‘let’s look on the bright side and see what kind of fun adventure we can get into today’ kind of guy. None of this is meaningless—it all matters! Me—I’m more like the writer of Ecclesiastes.
There are so many things of this life that seem so mundane and pointless. At the end of my life when I look back I will wonder why I ever thought they mattered. I can relate to the author of this book when he cries that everything is meaningless! Riches are meaningless, the vigor of our youth is meaningless, laughter is meaningless! The author concedes that food is for our enjoyment and we should take pleasure in eating. But as we read on, everything is still meaningless.
In chapter 3 verse 11-13 things get a little brighter: “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. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.”
The book of Ecclesiastes concludes by saying, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
So what are we to make of all this? Basically I’m right! And my husband is right too! This is all pointless; and it all matters. There are things of this life that won’t matter in eternity but were put here on this earth for our enjoyment. Fearing God and keeping His commandments are what will matter in eternity. Part of keeping His commands is to be loving and to build relationships with others. Another part of keeping his commands is being good stewards of what we own and taking care of our possessions. Striving for excellence in all we do is following His commands. The day-to-day things won’t matter in eternity, but the culmination of all these things will.
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For His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts like our thoughts.
This year at our church we are doing a year-long series on patience. I think we are all a little apprehensive and impatient about what this year will hold. When a series is done on patience, there will, no doubt, be lots of testing of our patience!
I remember a while ago I really wanted to redo my kitchen. It was one of those things—we looked at our current house and we talked about how redoing the kitchen and taking down the hanging cabinets could really open up the whole house … and then we moved in. And the fridge broke. And the skylight leaked. And the kitchen took the back burner—so to speak.
A year or so later after we were more settled into the house we revisited the kitchen topic, decided to start saving, and made an appointment with a designer to get ideas and pricing for what exactly we wanted to do. I dreamed about my new kitchen! We worked and we saved, and we saved.
Finally, we hit our goal and were ready to place the order! It had taken a year of dedicated saving to get to this point and I was so excited! We bought flooring when we first moved in as we had planned to redo the floors right away but when we decided to redo the kitchen, we thought it would make the most sense if we waited until the cabinetry was installed. Redoing the kitchen was the gateway to getting rid of the ugly, old carpeting and flooring, old countertops, cabinetry that had seen better days, and we were opening up the design of the house as we had envisioned it when we bought it.
We went for one more appointment with our designer to discuss all the details, the exact finish, hardware, and all the details for the cabinets before we placed the order. He told us to go home and figure out a few things and then call him with those details and he would place the order. So we went home and that was when everything fell apart. I’ll spare you all the details but it was one of those times in life when one unexpected expense after another came up, and pretty soon, we were back to almost the starting line in saving for our kitchen. I was devastated—we had been so close to getting it done! Have you ever had something like that happen? A goal that you have been working towards is almost within reach, when suddenly the carpet is pulled out from under you and you have to start all over? Sometimes things just take longer than we expect.
This stood out to me the other day when I was reading about the construction of the temple that Solomon was starting to work on. In the book of Exodus, the temple was talked about during the time when God led the Israelites out of Egypt. They thought they would be building the temple when they got to the promised land. But it ended up being another 470 years after they were settled in the promised land before construction even started! 470 years! 470 years before construction even started, then another 7 years until the work was completed. David thought perhaps he would be the one to build the temple, but his hands were too sullied by all the blood he had shed in battles so the Lord delayed the building of the temple. The Lord declared Solomon to be the one to build it.
Now if I was the Lord, I would have wanted it built way sooner, and probably would have tried to work a miracle or two along the way to speed things up. Many times we want to rush things, to make things happen and get it going quickly. But, His ways are not our ways. How much better to wait on His timing. The Lord wanted to maintain purity. He wanted to make sure He had the right people at the right time to entrust to build the temple. He didn’t rush.
We finally saved enough for our new kitchen. We ended up receiving the cabinets at the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. We were doing the work ourselves so this ended up being a huge blessing in disguise—there was nowhere to go and nothing to do so we had more time to work on the kitchen and were able to get it done more quickly which was great because the process of living in a house that was totally torn apart showed me that I am no Joanna Gaines who adapts to living in a house under construction! If we had had our normal schedules while trying to redo the kitchen, it would have taken much longer and I’m not sure I would have survived that.
God taught me patience in waiting to order the kitchen. He spared me the turmoil of living in a torn apart house longer than was absolutely necessary. What things has He saved you from in the midst of teaching you about patience?
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So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
In my “former life,” I was a cosmetologist and worked at a salon. One of my male clients was a contractor; he had his own small contracting business and did both small jobs and large ones, such as building new houses. He was nice but he was not a big people person. He lived and worked in an area where people tended to be a little … high maintenance, shall we say.
As I was cutting his hair one day, we were talking and he was telling me about a particularly ridiculous situation that he had to take care of earlier that week—it seemed to him that the woman was being extremely nit-picky. He concluded his story by saying, “I wanted to tell her that it is just a stupid house! You eat there and you sleep there. It is not worth all this fuss!” I think I actually laughed out loud when he said that!
If you’ve been with me for any length of time, you know I care about the house that I live in and I want it to be nice. I currently have a house cleaning business for my day job which offers me the opportunity to help others keep their homes nice and in a comfortable condition in which to entertain and relax. We take pride in our homes; we go to great lengths to make it reflect us and our own specific tastes, our own private retreat, and our homes are very important to us. But—. There are still times when I find myself getting all hung up on the details of a project in my house, or I find myself dwelling too long on something that has absolutely no importance in the grand scheme of things that I find myself repeating this man’s words, “It is just a stupid house. I eat there. And I sleep there.” There are bigger things to dwell on in life. We can so easily get hung up on the minutiae of life that we start missing the big picture. We forget that while earthly things (like a house) do matter in this life, it won’t matter one bit in eternity.
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2 NIV. I don’t know about you but that verse is a little more convicting than I would like for it to be. I can think of lots of things that I give way more energy and time to than they ever deserve. The new kitchen table won’t matter in eternity but the relationships built around that table will. Are we spending time exemplifying Christ? Are we investing time and energy building relationships with people, sharing the Good News? People are what matter and not the things of this earth.
Certainly the things of this earth are a blessing and we should be thankful and be good stewards. The condition in which we live will affect how we feel on this earth and you will never hear me say that it doesn’t matter. But, when we focus too much on the details of this life we miss the big picture. Eternity is what this life is really all about.
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