Eternity – what a concept
by Sue Smith
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
Having recently retired after more than 38 years working at one company, I thought I was quite aware of what this next phase would mean and bring.
I have watched others go down this path. I’m well aware that you need to have other goals and activities in your life. I regularly exercise and have formed good connections in all the groups to which I belong.
I note with a little chagrin that my body isn’t quite the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago, when everything seemed achievable. I like to think that I am emotionally aware. I also participate in several committees, which keep my brain active. People have told me that it takes a year – and I thought that seemed a little too ‘over the top’. But I have been struggling a little to rediscover my identity in this world.
Today’s passage reminds us of just how quickly life and its twists and turns come and go. It points out quite clearly that this body will return to where it began – dust returning to the earth. Our lives are finite and constrained by what we know of this world.
Recently, when driving on a highway, I was reminded of Keith Green’s song ‘I can’t wait to get to heaven’. He opens it by saying that God made Earth in six days, but Jesus has been working on heaven for two thousand years – so can you imagine what that will be like? There is so much more out there!
Everything starts and ends with God. Take pleasure in what he has given to us here and now, and know that there is even better waiting for us in heaven. Our identity rests in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which completes the yearning of our souls.
Lord God, thank you for fearfully and wonderfully making us to be in communion with you. Help us to surrender and centre our identity on Christ alone, in whom we find the peace our souls long for. Thank you for all the beauty that surrounds us here on this earth, and we look forward to heaven, where we will be with you. Amen.
Sue Smith recently retired from the oil industry and lives with her husband, Peter, in Port Macquarie NSW. She enjoys knitting, the gym and ocean swimming. She serves in her local St Peters congregation and on the LCANZ’s Commission on Social and Bioethical Questions (CSBQ).
- Click here to read previous devotions.
- We are also posting them on LCA Facebook, making it easy for you to share them with family and friends.
- Sign up to receive Daily Devotion in your inbox every morning. If you’re already doing that, please encourage others to sign up. Click here for the link.
