Those Unseen Things

“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

~2 Peter 1:2-4 

I know a lot of people who worry about dying, even Christians, but that has never been one of my worries. I have never worried about the length of my life, or even wanted to live into my 90s or longer. To me, life has always been a burden I’d rather not carry; something fleeting and temporary that I’d just as soon not have to deal with. But I do feel blessed that I’ve lived as long as I have without killing myself. When I was young, I was pretty reckless and never gave much thought to the outcome of any given situation—the folly of youth, I suppose because when I look back at some of those situations with all the years of experience I’ve accumulated, I just shake my head and offer a thanks to God because I know He is the only reason I’m alive today. While that may sound like a contradiction, the difference is, in my youth I never gave a second thought to the eternal outcome of my actions, so I’m glad God did, and I’ve had the chance to ensure that outcome. And now I know that my length of days is solely in His hands, as is everything else in life.

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).”

We are blinded to the truth of God by the things of this world. Whether it’s our own youthful folly, money, sex, drugs, or all the other things available to us in this life, we are all just hairless monkeys looking at something shiny. We want what we want when we want it and we don’t care who gets hurt or what the consequences will be. There is a veil over our minds when we don’t see the truth of God. We ignore the Bible, and we ignore the idea of eternal consequences. It’s easier to believe that this life is all there is, and death brings nothingness; or that we come back to try it all over again until we get it right; or that we become animals or insects that travel on to the next plain of existence, or any of the other dozens of fanciful ideas about what happens after this life ends. But the wisdom of this world is folly to God (1 Corinthians 3:19), and when we finally see the folly in our own thinking, that veil is lifted, and we see the truth of God. Our lives here are temporary and fleeting but at the end of this life is eternity. It’s up to us to decide where we will spend it.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).”

Read Psalm 89-99

© 2018 Marie McGaha