Fellow at Trinity Fellows Academy. I like to read, write, listen, and watch. If things were simple, word would have gotten around. Yes, tweets are my own.

Aug 25, 2016

August 9 — The present tense

Today I learned something about the heaven. I was walking to a coffee shop to try to fit two hours of work into one. I had a flight to catch later that day, and in eleven days I would be moving and I had done almost nothing to prepare. I could feel the stress in my back. I had a phone call in half an hour. The day called my attention forward in a rage of articles to write, tickets to purchase, and text messages to send.

Then I looked up and saw a cluster of white flowers in my neighbor’s front yard. My goodness, a flower, a rich handful of beauty right in front of my face. The thought went through my mind that I should savor this moment, that this thimbleful of creation’s glory contained enough wonder for me to spend hours marveling at, that it spoke enough of love to bring me to tears.

All of this I thought in my self-awareness. I also realized in that moment that I could never get myself to that point — at least not right now. I couldn’t let go of the Google docs and baggage claims and emails to my landlord that had to pass my way in the next 24 hours. I had to let the flower go without savoring the moment.

It will be like this for the rest of my mortal life. The numbering of our days pulls us into the future, demanding that we always look forward to make the most of time we have, to fulfill the duties and responsbilities of being human, to live with the dreaded anxiety of not-knowing what the next decade, year, day, minute has in store.

Not so for those find eternal life. In an unending heaven the demands of time fall away, the chains of the future are broken. We will be able to look at the flower without being pulled to the next thing, free to see and savor everything God has done in that thing. We will see the full magnificance of his handiwork in every thing he has made and in every thing he has done beause after the flower there will be plenty of time to stop and look at the next flower, to pop in to the mansion next door to chat with the neighbors, to savor a good cup of coffee, to soar among the clouds.