Prepared

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”  John 14:3

It is not difficult for me to feel overwhelmed with any kind of large project or event when the outcome is not certain and the “how” is not clear.  Our building project, which hasn’t started yet,  has gone from a fun idea to a real proposition in a very short time.  Since I am not a big picture person it is easy for me to get hung up on the details and disabled by the enormity of it all, even before we have a set of house plans or our current home is on the market.  To add to the frenzy the Pinterest boards are filling up to the point of aversion. Now, when I look at them I am inspired and terrified at the same time.  What was I thinking!  Then I take a deep breath and do the one thing I need to do today to prepare for the future.  Fill two more trash bags and clean out the closet… today.

I realize, though, everyone is preparing for something.  If not a building project than for retirement, anniversaries and vacations or even meals and doctor’s appointments.   But how much do we really prepare for eternity?    How do we invest in pre-planning for Jesus to pick us up and take us to Himself?  Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”  That is exactly how I feel.  Jesus has told us that He is busy with a building project for you and me and when He’s finished He is coming for us.  We cannot see it but we can prepare for it.

Admittedly,  the word eternity is ethereal.   However, in order to understand our need to prepare for it we must believe it is a concrete reality.   The dictionary definition is: “A state in which time has no application.”  In other words, eternity is outside of time.   However, as Christians we already live in a state in which time has no application.  “And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3   If we know Jesus as our Savior then we are already living an eternal life, right now.  Jesus gives eternal life at the moment of conversion.   By faith we believe God and respond with obedience regardless of whether or not we “see the whole scope of God’s work.”  In this way faith and eternity are intertwined and our lives become vessels of hope as we live out the “to do’s” of today for God’s promised future…”that where I am you may be also.”

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11