August 23, 2010
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He Has Placed Eternity In The Hearts Of Men…
Sometimes, the pull of Eternity is so strongly on my heart that I wonder that I am not pulled right out of this world. Encroaching Autumn always does this to me, without fail. I’m not sure if it’s the cooler weather, the start of a new school year, the loss of “wonder and adventure” that used to permeate my being especially in Autumn and especially as a child, or the fact that I feel like I am somehow missing out on an elusive something that is tied up with physically distant but dearly loved people and an unidentifyable longing that are braided together in an indefinable call that I hear and feel to the very marrow of my bones.
As strange as it feels for me to write it, I almost think Wonderful Autumn is in some ways my least favorite season…or at least the most disconcerting one. Winter, I have come to love simply for the cozy, tucking in and resting aspect of it, the knowledge that this is good and will produce great good and renewal from the time of rest; Spring is all of joyful anticipation; Summer–oh, glorious Summer! And then, Fall…a two-sided coin that is pure, soul-flooding pleasure and pure, soul-twisting pain all at once.
I was reading in Isaiah in chapters 60, 61 and 62…anticipating Kingdom Come, and words to Israel such as “Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy”…”Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”…”No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then will all your people be righteous”…
“They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated”…”so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.”…”I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,”…”For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”
“The LORD has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: ”Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him.’” They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.”
Wow.
I know very well the absolute urgency to realize that Jesus could come at any moment. The more I read God’s Word, the more I long for people to know Him and to not be so stubborn and hard-hearted with this gift of living in an Age of Grace. And yet, sometimes, when I read the news, and I read people’s Facebooks and I hear the hard stuff and see the sin and know from various means the pain that is merely a ‘normal’ part of life in this sin-cursed world…the longing for the Day when the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations is so intense it feels difficult to breathe.
Oh God! Keep the vision of Some Day Very Soon so freshly before me that I do not grow weary in doing good and in living in obedience to You! Help me to realize that it truly, truly, is just a few snatches of moments before we stand before You to give an accounting of everything done in this blip of a seventy or eighty year timespan! Make me steadfast, unmoving, always abounding in Your work, since I know that my work in You is not in vain! Keep me hungry, Lord, keep me longing for that Day…let me not become so comfortable and content with the day-to-day of this world that I ever lose my hunger and thirst for the Day when You will rule the world with truth and grace and make the nations prove the glories of Your righteousness and the wonders of Your love.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
