Last night, I stood in the kitchen, cooking up cajun pasta and chatted with a friend.
“Sometimes I just wish Jesus would come back. I didn’t used to be like that. There were so many things I wanted to do in life before that day….” she shared.
“Me too,” I said. And I couldn’t help but wonder at the change of heart that has overtaken us.
“I think it’s because I see all the trials my children face,” she said.
“Yes,” I felt the stretching of my heart as she spoke the words.
Later I crawled into bed and thought more about my heart and its hope for heaven. When I was single, the dream of marriage called out for God to slow His plan for return. Before my belly swelled with new life, more than I wanted to see God’s face I longed to see the faces of
my children.
As Western children we heard we could be anything, do anything, and that life was ripe with possibility. The road has turned out to be a little less lustrous. I look at my own children and think of how we are not made for the purpose of our own personal happiness. Happiness with no thought of eternity flies away like a bird. I hope the siren song of comfort and temporary happiness doesn’t capture their young hearts as it did mine.
my children.
As Western children we heard we could be anything, do anything, and that life was ripe with possibility. The road has turned out to be a little less lustrous. I look at my own children and think of how we are not made for the purpose of our own personal happiness. Happiness with no thought of eternity flies away like a bird. I hope the siren song of comfort and temporary happiness doesn’t capture their young hearts as it did mine.
Now that youth is sifting through my fingers, and middle age approaches, this shallow world is losing ground within me. I suppose I thought the world held untasted joy that I would regret missing should I taste heaven too soon.
Matthew Henry’s commentary rings out loud and strong: “Believers make Christ all in all, and set their hearts upon another world.”
The balance of two bits of wisdom helps chase away the gray clouds:
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.
-CS Lewis
Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.
-CS Lewis
My affection for God and those He has given to me lifts me above this life. By living out Christ’s ways in the lives of those I love I escape the tediousness of the long days I face. Heaven will come when God is good and ready, but in small ways can’t Christ come to the world daily through me?
Happiness may take wing at times, but my heart takes wing every time I look into the eyes of my husband and children. The Bible says your heart will be wherever you place your treasure. My treasure is my time, my effort, my patience, my kindness, and my faith. I give it all to God and those He has given me. I live with a heart straddling this world and one to come.
I’m sure heaven will be, well, heavenly. But for now, the rugged world offers great joy in eight little faces and one man’s devotion. For that, I am eternally grateful.
