First in a series on Eternity.

There are seasons in my life when I’m reminded that there’s a much deeper reality going on than what’s visible in this life. Moments when I can see a bit farther through the mist.

Back in my days on staff with Cru, one of the discipleship lessons we did with students involved considering our lives as a tiny dot on the unending line of eternity, with the application being to radically adjust our priorities – our entire way of thinking – to live in light of eternity. As we try to look at life through a new lens, some things recede into the background, while others become more prominent.

But how often do I really see it correctly? The gritty texture of daily life clouds my vision; the stuff of my vapor-like life bogs me down. The pressures and desires of this world can feel so huge and overwhelming, I forget my life is just a blip compared to infinitude.

And then there comes those rare times when I see the faintest glimmer of that invisible reality that I’ve banked my life on being true. And I open my heart up to long for it.

“How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the Living God.” Psalm 84:1-2

Sometimes, the veil is pulled back and I glimpse a little of the beauty and joy found there. Maybe you have also had those divine encounters. Time and space is invaded by the ancient voice of One who woos us, who has been whispering our name since we were born; and sometimes we even stop long enough to hear it.

The Bible tells us God created us to be eternal beings and our restless hearts carry a faint memory of that. “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.” Ecc. 3:11.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

So why we don’t we talk about this other world –  heaven – more often? Is it because we hope it won’t happen for us for a long, long time? And so we hold on to what we know, to the things of earth, with a tight fist? Or is it because we have no context for understanding what it’ll be like? Yes, life on earth is rich and full, and life is Christ, but, oh! Our future home in heaven will be glorious beyond our comprehension.

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.” I Cor 13:12

These next few weeks, I’ll post some bits and pieces I’ve read over the years that have helped me as I ponder heaven. I hope it’ll help you, too, as you think of the deeper, invisible reality.