Living On the Cusp of Eternity (3)

 

While we don’t live in a retirement community, most of the people in our neighborhood are retired. The greater Myrtle Beach region not only receives around 20 million visitors each year, but it is also a permanent retirement destination; residential building cannot keep up with demand. This is like living in a mega airport terminal, heavy with one – way departures. What I mean is that most of the older folks who move here will die here. As a member of our homeowners’ association governing board observed, “Most of the people who live here will not sell their homes, they will be carried out of their homes.”

 

What people talk about interests me; people talk about what is important to them. Older people talk about what they’ve always talked about, and what they value today tends to be what they’ve always valued – possessions, prestige, pleasure, appearance, power. They live as they’ve always lived, seemingly ignoring the fact that not only is the death rate 100%, but that they are getting closer to the experience every day, with every breath. This makes no sense to me.

 

Suppose you went to an airport’s departure terminal and asked the people, “Where are you going? What flight will you be boarding?”

 

What would you think if the overwhelming response was, “I don’t know where I am going. When I’m called, I’m called, that’s all I know. I guess I’ll see what happens. In the meantime, life goes on and I’m going to enjoy as much as I can.”

 

While we may not think that people would arrive at an airport and not know where they are going, this is the way we live regarding the greatest departure flight we’ll ever make. Those of us who have made it to senior citizen status generally have no idea where we are going when our flight is called. We have no idea how to dress for our destination, no idea of the airline we will be flying. This is also true for many professing Christians who have not lived as disciples of Jesus Christ, but as spectators – thinking that watching the game is equivalent to actually playing the game.

 

Yet, there are people in the airport terminal who are looking forward to their flight being called, because they are looking forward to seeing their dear Lord Jesus, they are looking forward to seeing the saints, both those they have known, and those they will come to know.

 

I love the description of Christiana preparing for heaven in Part 2 of The Pilgrim’s Progress, for she waits with expectation. Here is an excerpt:

 

“After this, I beheld until they were come into the land of Beulah, where the sun shineth night and day. Here, because they were weary, they betook themselves a while to rest. And because this country was common for pilgrims, and because the orchards and vineyards that were here belonged to the King of the Celestial country, therefore they were licensed to make bold with any of his things. But a little while soon refreshed them here; for the bells did so ring, and the trumpets continually sound so melodiously, that they could not sleep, and yet they received as much refreshing as if they had slept their sleep ever so soundly. Here also all the noise of them that walked the streets was, More pilgrims are come to town! And another would answer, saying, And so many went over the water, and were let in at the golden gates to-day! 

They would cry again, There is now a legion of shining ones just come to town, by which we know that there are more pilgrims upon the road; for here they come to wait for them, and to comfort them after all their sorrow. Then the pilgrims got up, and walked to and fro. But how were their ears now filled with heavenly noises, and their eyes delighted with celestial visions! In this land they heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing, smelt nothing, tasted nothing that was offensive to their stomach or mind; only when they tasted of the water of the river over which they were to go, they thought that it tasted a little bitterish to the palate; but it proved sweeter when it was down.”

 

Then Christiana gets her boarding call:

 

“Now, while they lay [remained] here, and waited for the good hour, there was a noise in the town that there was a post come from the Celestial City, with matter of great importance to one Christiana, the wife of Christian the pilgrim. So inquiry was made for her, and the house was found out where she was. So the post presented her with a letter. The contents were, Hail, good woman; I bring thee tidings that the Master calleth for thee, and expecteth that thou shouldst stand in his presence in clothes of immortality within these ten days.

 

“When he had read this letter to her, he gave her therewith a sure token that he was a true messenger, and was come to bid her make haste to be gone. The token was, an arrow with a point sharpened with love, let easily into her heart, which by degrees wrought so effectually with her, that at the time appointed she must be gone.”

 

(In case you’re wondering, there are contemporary English versions of The Pilgrim’s Progress, but I do love the original. Among other things, it slows me down and helps me think about what I’m reading.)

 

In 2 Corinthians 5:1 – 5, Paul writes that he and his friends are looking forward to their flight to see Jesus, they are listening for the boarding call, they are “longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.” He writes that God has prepared us for this experience, that God placed His Holy Spirit in us as a foretaste of eternity. This means that we are living in a measure of eternity now, right now.

 

A friend once asked me, “Why would you want to stay here any longer than you have to?” The only reason I can think of is to help others, to share Jesus with others (Philippians 1:21 – 26).

 

Eternity is now, but then it will be fully now, and who can grasp what it all means. We have Biblical imagery to help us “see,” such as Revelation chapters 21 – 22, and we can live in that imagery in a measure now, for our God is I AM THAT I AM.

 

Living on the cusp of eternity means, I hope, that we are living as citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), that we are sharing Jesus with others, living above the chaos of the world and our own nation, and living beneath the Cross and serving “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40).

 

Whether you are old or young, your flight could be called at any moment.

 

“Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:9 – 10).

 

O dear friends, Paul is writing to Christians, we shall all be held accountable.

 

Are we ready to board our flight?