The Temporal vs. the Eternal
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.: II Corinthians 4:18
When you get right down to it, everything in this life is temporary. The most obvious is that of life. We are born, live X number of years, and then our physical bodies die, dust to dust as we are told in the book of Genesis. Depending on whether or not Jesus is our Lord and Savior, our soul, which is eternal, will either pass on into God’s heaven or to Hades to await final judgment (Revelation 20:12-15). Another obvious thing that is temporary is marriage. A marriage either ends in death of a spouse or in divorce. However, love doesn’t always end. For those couples whose love is strong, death will not end that love. Jobs and careers come and go. Someone once said that the average person will have at least three careers in his or her lifetime; that’s careers, not jobs. People can have dozens of jobs over a lifetime. Homes, cars, furniture, none of these last. They all come to an end eventually through use, age, style, obsolescence, or just because something new is desired.
Even the family setting is temporary. Dad and Mom have their little ones and enjoy rearing them up, teaching and caring for them, but one day the little ones are no longer little. They grow up and leave our homes to have their own families, and we are left having to make adjustments from being together to being separated by time and distance. But that’s how it’s supposed to be. We desire that all those years of caring, discipline, and teaching will pay off. As we age we might lose our good health and become dependent upon others to care for us. No one wants to be a burden on others, but youth, too, is fleeting. I saw a tee shirt advertised on line that said, “I thought getting older would take longer.” How true that is. One day we are young and energetic and don’t think that much about old age, and then all of a sudden we are there.
The popular singing group Kansas recorded a song several years ago called, “Dust in the Wind”. In the song, there is a line that goes, “nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky”, but that’s not true. Scripture tells us that there will be a new earth and a new heaven (Revelation 21:1), and they will not be temporary, but eternal. Even the seas will be gone. Think about the thousands of years that the oceans rolled in and out with the tide, the waves crashing upon the shore. That, too, will end. No one knows when these events will take place, but they will happen in God’s timing. Whether things are temporary or eternal, we really only have today. The wisdom of Solomon gave us some excellent advice: “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1). We really don’t even know if we will be privileged to see tomorrow. However, we live as if we will. At 12 midnight, a new day will hopefully dawn, and we will get up and do it all over again.
All of this seems rather monotonous in a way, day after day, sleeping, working, eating, studying, playing, etc., but there is a new, totally non-boring day coming eventually. All of the troubles, problems, and worries with which we deal will be gone. It is hard to imagine a place and time of perfect peace for none of us has ever experienced a day without something going wrong or at least not turning out the way we desired. The Apostle Paul wrote that eternal things are not visible to us. Our minds can conjure up heaven, pearly gates, mansions, etc., but I believe that heaven will be far more than even the most vivid imagination could ever picture. We all like to get new things, new cars, new clothes, etc., but Jesus said that He will “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). We will have a new body. Plastic surgeons can try their best to remake wrinkled old bodies look younger again, but it’s still the same old body with the same old worries, aches, and pains. As Joan Rivers used to say after her many face lifts, “Am I smiling?”
The Lord doesn’t want us to dwell on our troubles, fret over things of which we have no control, or go around depressed and discouraged in this age of pandemics, “wokeness”, and wickedness. Jesus wants us to focus on eternity, our relationship with Him and the Father, and how that we can make a difference in the lives of others to encourage and give them hope for the future. We can be thankful that some things in life, such as pain, disease, pandemics, wars, hatred, and disappointments are only temporary, and that the best is yet to come.