A Thought For The Week Of April 3, 2017

"... we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18) These words put me in mind of a journey through a harsh environment. Perhaps we're running out of food and water and the chances of survival are looking slim. So what do we do - we focus our eyes on the distant horizon. We believe. We hope. Something must lie beyond that distant horizon. Some source of life. We have to believe. Otherwise we might as well give up. Laying down and getting it over with is probably our most reasonable choice. But there must be something beyond that horizon. Basically these words from 2 Corinthians are that image spiritualized. Everything we see around us will disappear one day. Even the stars in the sky have a lifespan. Everything comes to an end. Even us, as we're perfectly aware. We have an expiry date. So how do we keep going? Why not just give up? Why bother struggling for existence, when the end of our existence is the only possible outcome? Because we believe that there's something beyond the horizon of this life. Because we have hope in something more. So we go on. We try to make this world and this life better - for ourselves and for our descendants - but we believe that there's more to existence than just what we see around us. There's an eternity, and we believe that somehow and in some way that eternity awaits us. So we watch that horizon, knowing that there's something beyond it that's there. We just can't see it. As we approach Holy Week, we have the same reaction - Lent can be a long, hard journey - but there's something waiting for us - just beyond the horizon. We wait. We watch. We believe. Something's coming.