“For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” — Isaiah 64:4 (NLT)
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The hardest part about sports is that eventually they all come to an end. Tiger Woods can’t swing a golf club with near the same power; Derek Jeter can’t field ground balls with near the same range; Michael Jordan can’t hit shots that seemingly defy physics. We’ve all seen and described these moments in shock and sadness to our friends.
Now, all these occurrences are completely natural and do absolutely nothing to deter from the greatness that was attained in a particular moment. It’s just that the human experience is defined by this course: rise, peak, fall.
However, if that’s the unavoidable fate of humans, then the experience of a relationship with the living God couldn’t be more opposite. Having a personal relationship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ, defies the logic of what we understand. It only gets better, it only gets more profound, it only gets more perfect, and that’s just what happens here in this space and time.
A verse that has been on my heart a lot lately is Isaiah 64:4 (above). The picture it paints is direct and very real — no one has any idea about what is coming for those who love God and who proclaim His Son to be the rightful King of this world and beyond. No one has any concrete vision of the complete paradise that exists for broken people who are made pure and perfect through being washed in the blood of the Son of Man. No one has any concept of what it will be like to eternally be in perfect community with God.
If that is the case, thinking about eternity with God provides encouragement to help us endure all that takes place in this world. Every disappointment is a mere inconvenience; every tragedy is just a finite instance of pain on the road to eternity with the Father; every failure is a product of our brokenness and not our eternal being. Whereas good things of this world eventually cease to exist in their optimal state, the Kingdom of Heaven is governed by the principle of everything being all-sufficient at a level our current minds can’t comprehend.
In Heaven, which is what the prophet Isaiah was writing about, the sin we carry around will be left at the door. The sickness we harbor will be forgotten. The battle wounds and scars from our time here will be healed in perfection. Everything about our being will be crafted in the image of a Holy God, giving us nothing to fear and nothing to lose from our time here.
For those of us who know Jesus Christ to be our personal Savior, this is the future that awaits us — this is the hope that He died to give us. We are on a collision course to a space and time where there are no limits to either space or time; where the cares of this world will be meaningless; where age cannot erode the magnitude of the moment.
And if that’s the case, let’s start living here with a purpose to tell people about why they should share the same hope we have. Let’s start living in a way that illustrates our understanding of how the best here is a pitiful shadow of what the Lord, our God, has coming.
— Jon Oglesby
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