Long Looking

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:27-28, ESV). 

My daughter Catherine just returned from Disney World and needed a break, so we kept our two granddaughters last Saturday. And we had a blast. When Catherine and her husband Lance came to pick up Elaina (3) and Lila (2), my parents also happened to show up. We chatted around the patio furniture in the backyard for a while and took one of those four-generation pictures that make one begin to muse about deeper things in life. That night I was reviewing the day with my life’s love and began to think of our son and his upcoming marriage. I wondered if someday he and his wife would be holding each other, talking of their grandchildren, looking into a future on earth that reached far beyond my own. I smiled and handed their future over to the Lord who would be there. 

Life is complicated. We so often get caught up in the moment with a particular patient, a child problem or a mission that Christ has placed us within.

Of course, living in the moment is not all bad. Christ certainly advises us to live within the moment, loving and serving day by day.

But sometimes it’s good to look beyond the moment. Sometimes it helps to recollect years gone by, when God was especially near, or peer into the distant future, where the same God will be waiting for us. Such long looking helps temper our all-to-human, sometimes-overactive sense of urgency.

As Jesus was headed toward Jerusalem and His passion, He spoke of a distant future where all things would be made right.  He spoke it because it was truth and He spoke it to help His disciples through many present and future moments of urgent distress.

“Work and live as if I were coming tomorrow---don’t waste your moments.

And don’t waste your worry. Your future is going to be okay. I’ve got eternity to redeem this moment and I will.” 

Sometimes the long look is the one we need in order to live faithfully in the moment.  

Dear Father,

Help me see you in the moment and also in the ages.

Amen