“God . . . has planted eternity in the human heart, . . .” (Eccles. 3:11, NLT). Not jealousy, not anger, not frustration, not sloth, but eternity! Eternity, then, is the heart’s true home. So, maybe babies are born with an ‘eternity knowing’ but without words. And maybe, as they grow, and life brings other experiences, clouding the original clarity, they lose their precious first awareness. Maybe it sort of morphs into a longing, but with blurred definition, a desire for what can no longer be grasped. Since it’s God Who does the planting, though, the maturing heart will always carry eternity in seed form.
And maybe it’s this seed of eternity, with its echoes of a faraway home, that drives the human heart to search, to continue to struggle to regain what’s like the proverbial carrot – near, but agonizingly out of reach. Our love of being wowed, of being joyfully rendered speechless, may be occurrences of that seed’s presence. Every wide-eyed gasp of little children, too, may indicate the drawing near of that otherworldly home.
Much later, as adults, still with eternity-bearing hearts, our fascination can turn to people and toys and experiences which elicit oohs and aahs – sports stars, movie idols, musicians, machines (of widely various types), tech candy, travel, and much more. These aren’t wrong in themselves, but they ultimately disappoint if our attachment to them is an effort to re-experience eternity. (In Jesus’ time here, the fascination was on signs and wonders which Jesus forcefully declared was missing the point).
Jesus is the Eternal One who came from eternity, outside of time and space. Was it the Eternity of His Person, his ‘good vibrations,’ that stirred up the eternity in seed form in hearts? Each of the disciples, at Jesus’ simple invitation, abandoned his livelihood, at the drop of a hat so to speak, to dedicate himself to following this One. Demons recognized him, the storm recognized him, illnesses recognized him. And didn’t Jesus himself say that if he were lifted up, he would draw all men to himself? (Jn. 12:32).
How wild is this? “[God] orchestrated this: the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21). Have we now been ‘magnetized’ to draw all humanity to him? Having had the Kingdom conferred on us, been made ambassadors of that Kingdom, and now embodying the righteousness of God, do men and women ‘see’ eternity in us and therefore begin to hunger and thirst after ‘our’ righteousness? If so, how wild is that? Something to ponder ’til I see y’all tomorrow, 10 AM, 3 PM UK, 4 PM, FR. PD
