The Best Is Yet To Come

Is there anybody else out there who is married to an investigative reporter (technically retired, but apparently not totally)?  This man digs so hard that your own nails start to have second-hand dirt under them.  Twenty minutes into the conversation, your mind starts spinning and your brain has turned to dust.

But, wait.  Then, you learn something…

One of Dave’s favorite books of the Bible is Ecclesiastes.  Yep.  You read that correctly.  How often does anyone even think of Ecclesiastes – unless they’re from the ’60s and recall the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds (which used the words from Ecclesiastes 3)?  When is the last time you took a class on the book or heard a sermon preached from it?  Many people – who have actually perused it – disregard it because it seems so negative.  “Life is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”  (Eccl. 2:11).  Think about it, though:  what single mom couldn’t relate to that as she works for minimum wage, struggling day after day to keep up?  Come to think of it:  everyone lives, works to survive and then dies…

But, what drew me in was something he found which relates to the passage in Eccl. 7:10

“Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ ”

Isn’t this something all older people are guilty of saying?  Each generation grumbles that the world “is going to hell in a handbasket.”  “Things aren’t what they used to be,” and so on.  Thinking back on elements of the past – becoming nostalgic – is something we probably all do at one time or another.  Reflecting on a time we’d like to return to.  But, our thoughts of that moment, or that one snapshot in our minds is not the total picture.  We pluck out the good part and dwell on that.  Thus, we miss the “good, ole days.”  But, were they really and totally that good in every aspect?  No!  So, when we become nostalgic in our reflection of the past, we are focusing on a moment of perfection which, in its totality, did not exist.  It simply gives us a glimpse of what lies ahead.  What we long for is not in the past, but in the future:  our eternal home.

Hebrews 11:10 tells us that Abraham followed God (not knowing where he was going) but looking for the “city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God.”  The heroes written about later in the same chapter hung on through thick and thin “because God had provided something better for us.”

In reflecting back fondly, we are essentially running a video and cutting out a small snippet to examine and wallow in and then sadly miss.  But, we’re forgetting or ignoring the parts before and after that short clip.  Life has never been as perfect as we imagine it was at times.  Were there good times and memorable moments?  Of course.  And, there still can be.

God gave us life and a place to dwell.  That life has both bad and good times.  But, He also offers us eternal life with Him and that is where we will be truly home.  What we honestly long for is not behind us.  It’s ahead of us!  That’s where perfection is.  That’s where our nostalgic moments become reality.  That gives us a reason to focus – not on the past, but on the future.

“For God has placed eternity in our hearts…”  (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

“But, our citizenship is in heaven…”  (Philippians 3:20)

“…forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13-14)