When Eternity invades the Present
I stood there looking over the shoulder of my fourteen year old daughter, examining the digital pictures I had taken at the NIHEA graduation last June. I didn't know many of the 8th graders on the screen, but upon hearing such unsettling news, we just had to check... We zoomed in on one of the certificates that the kids were holding and there it was written in calligraphy, plain enough to read: Isaac Norris. I turned away and began to shake, overcome with emotion. I didn't even know Isaac, but there was something about seeing his smiling face, and that he was standing there a few feet away from my daughter on the same stage, that just un-did me. It could have been my daughter who was taken, it could have been my wife that was fighting for her life in a Seattle hospital. And suddenly a sense of kindredness in the suffering of Isaac's father, Craig, and his whole family piled down on me. I decided it was a good time to go work on the car--and have a good cry.
I cannot begin to unravel the mystery of this tragic event in the Norris family. My best guesses about the purposes of God in allowing it feel like stabs in the dark. But as I found myself touched by all that I had in common with the Norrises, certainly all who have heard about their loss have found some sort of common ground and felt a shudder. Why is this? For one thing, we all are similarly touched by the results of sin. It might not be the level of suffering that we see the Norris family undergoing, but how many have not experienced what a ruthless destroyer sin is, whether it be our own sin or the sins of others? In our weakness we groan with creation "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (Rom. 8:23) We long for the day when there will be no more pain, or tears or sorrow, no more injustice, no more death and no more sin. But we are not to wait in a "sterile, solitary, grit-it-out" sort of way. We must remember that we follow in the footsteps of One who experienced all the good and bad of life, and felt the same sick feeling in the pit of his stomach at the tragic results of sin. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Heb. 4:15) And it is this same Savior who calls to us saying,"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28
Another reason that such an event shakes us at our foundations is that for a brief moment, eternity invades the present. Most of us live our lives in some manner pretending that this life will not be followed by another. We live in low-level denial of the judgments that we will face and the eternal consequences (both good and bad) of our choices now. Even as Christians we are often so busy looking after the temporal things which are seen, that we have little time or energy for the unseen things which are eternal. And then we lose a loved one, or have a close call on the highway, or receive a terrifying result from a medical test. And suddenly our denial system comes crashing down and we are forced to acknowledge what we knew down deep all along; we are sons of eternity, made by God and returning to Him one day. We have to soberly admit that we are not sons of earth as much as we are sons of heaven, and that preparation for the world to come, both for ourselves and those around us, is the most important business of our lives.
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Ps. 90:12
I cannot begin to unravel the mystery of this tragic event in the Norris family. My best guesses about the purposes of God in allowing it feel like stabs in the dark. But as I found myself touched by all that I had in common with the Norrises, certainly all who have heard about their loss have found some sort of common ground and felt a shudder. Why is this? For one thing, we all are similarly touched by the results of sin. It might not be the level of suffering that we see the Norris family undergoing, but how many have not experienced what a ruthless destroyer sin is, whether it be our own sin or the sins of others? In our weakness we groan with creation "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (Rom. 8:23) We long for the day when there will be no more pain, or tears or sorrow, no more injustice, no more death and no more sin. But we are not to wait in a "sterile, solitary, grit-it-out" sort of way. We must remember that we follow in the footsteps of One who experienced all the good and bad of life, and felt the same sick feeling in the pit of his stomach at the tragic results of sin. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Heb. 4:15) And it is this same Savior who calls to us saying,"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28
Another reason that such an event shakes us at our foundations is that for a brief moment, eternity invades the present. Most of us live our lives in some manner pretending that this life will not be followed by another. We live in low-level denial of the judgments that we will face and the eternal consequences (both good and bad) of our choices now. Even as Christians we are often so busy looking after the temporal things which are seen, that we have little time or energy for the unseen things which are eternal. And then we lose a loved one, or have a close call on the highway, or receive a terrifying result from a medical test. And suddenly our denial system comes crashing down and we are forced to acknowledge what we knew down deep all along; we are sons of eternity, made by God and returning to Him one day. We have to soberly admit that we are not sons of earth as much as we are sons of heaven, and that preparation for the world to come, both for ourselves and those around us, is the most important business of our lives.
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Ps. 90:12
posted by pressingon at
5:26 PM
0 Comments
