Everlasting
“The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”
Today’s Text: Psalm 103:12-22 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
In a way, the study of history reveals the deepest longing of the human heart for immortality. For us who are living, the memory of people in the past is a facsimile of immortality, or maybe a sign that the human soul is immortal.
But the vast, vast majority of all humans who have ever lived are forgotten by future generations in the blink of an eye. For us who are living, we hate that fact, because it mean that we too will be forgotten by future generations in the blink of an eye—as if we never existed in the first place.
Philosophers might say that death makes our living absurd—pointless, meaningless. Just as the teacher of Ecclesiastes said: “Meaning! Meaningless! … Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
I was watching an interview of a health guru who was talking about the reasons for strength training, especially as we get older. And he basically said that the benefit is a better quality of life—being able to enjoy activities with children, grandchildren, and beyond.
That’s kind of assuming a lot! It assumes that we have a healthy relationship with our children, grandchildren, and beyond. Obviously, a healthy lifestyle is a wholistic thing—not just physical, but more than that, relational.
But then, there’s the absurdity of death and how we are so easily forgotten by future generations. In a way, we might be more concerned about our future generations than they are about us—except that they might search us out in the annals of family stories as a spark of hope for their own immortality.
I’m thinking as a nonbeliever, even though I can honestly say I have no clue as to how they would think about such things. As for me, I have the real and genuine hope of eternal life.
My belief in eternal life is what makes me care for my children and my children’s children and beyond. I mean, I love them because they are my children. And I hope and pray that we will enjoy eternity together with their children and their children’s children, as we as any of my believing family who preceded me. … There are not many.
The LORD’s love is with me from everlasting to everlasting because I fear the LORD and hold on to His covenant with me in Christ Jesus. His love for me is not everlasting if it ends in my death.
Father, You are eternal, holy, Almighty God. Thank You for the promise of eternal life that I have in Christ Jesus. But may that hope guide my love for my family, especially my children. They have that same hope, but may that hope bear fruit in our lives, in our relationship. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
