The Never-Ending

And somehow this is a gift from my late mother: the draw of eternity.

This life is just the beginning.

I think that’s what Mom would say now—because she is more alive right now than she ever was. She’s just living in a different realm. The pain is ours, not hers. She experiences what we can hardly imagine. She has begun the rest of her life in that hard-to-comprehend state, eternity.

I think, though, one of the points the Scripture makes is that eternity has already begun; it is embedded in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11). Forever starts now. Our lives begin, but they won’t end.

How then must we live this beginning stretch of our existence? I’d say, with the never-ending in mind.

Because my mom has transferred her residence from earth to a place beyond earth, invisible to the human eye this side of the threshold, I’ve been thinking a lot about the never-ending. Suddenly, lots of things don’t seem to matter quite so much.

But this beginning-life does matter, even though it’s so short compared to the never-ending. It directly and drastically affects the life that comes after life: One can experience everlasting life and the full redemption of God’s dreams for humanity in that paradisaical realm where Mom is, or one can be lost in the horrors of the second death.

This life matters, because Jesus stepped into it, once. He died the most appalling death imaginable as punishment for my sin and yours. Then He crushed the power, the permanence, the pain of the grave through His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, making it possible for us to avoid the second death.

Paradise will be mine, because I trust in Jesus. And paradise is now Mom’s, because she trusted Him here, where her life began. Will it be yours?