I thought on the end of time this morning. Yes, I know, a rather impractical and lofty topic for such pragmatic people like we. Nonetheless, I allowed my mind to drift past political debates, crumbling economies and conflicts between raging armies. I zoomed past the bloated calendar of have-to’s on my smartphone, the leadership meetings begging preparation, baseball playoffs desiring to distract me, current technology news and the other 417 things requesting my focus. Instead of giving my mind to lesser things I disciplined myself to choose a higher path this morning. I let my children’s lives flash before my mind and saw myself and Amy as much older people, finishing our journey together. My sanctified imagination crept past the days when I will no longer be a voice in a pulpit or the writer of glory-purposed words. There will be in that day no blogs to be hammered out by me, no MP3’s to post online or TV ministries to lead. I will not be needed in those hours as others will be the ones entrusted with the ministry of a moment. While contemplating this, I heard the last song of earth’s church be sung – there will be a final day among a final people with a final opportunity to shine His light on earth, you know? As I continued my thoughts, the horrors of earth’s great time of tribulation went past me in my mind and the creation of the new heavens and earth became the eternal reality. All that we knew and know was then gone forever, from that point onward the ages will be merely recorded as history because the greater and more glorious truth will have swallowed them up. Everything was over and the first book closed and God will then allow us to be confident of the first line of the next book, an age referred to in Scripture but exhaustively experienced by none of us as of yet. It is the never to be erased nor forgotten book of His own chief aim of the ages: He, the Sovereign One, has summed up all that ever was or will be in the effulgence of His own immeasurable glory. Yes, in the end, we will be bathed in the ecstasy of fully comprehending that it all has always been about Him… and how unimaginably worthy He is to receive the end of that eternal purpose. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He is our everything…and that has always been the plan.
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” – Ephesians 1:7-11
All of time and eternity, all that was created and has ever been, all manifestations of light and darkness, all tangible matter and each intangible thought, every prayer and all praise, each pain and all pleasure, both demon and angel, sinner and saint, all children of darkness and each child of the light, every speck of dust and every gaping galaxy, all earthly kings for all of time and every forgotten peasant that time ignored, the strong and the infirm, the wise and the fool, the noble and the degraded, the intelligent and the feebleminded…yes the entirety of the known cosmos and the realm of the not-yet-known created order will all be summed up together in an unstoppable acknowledgment of the highest and most glorious truth that Jesus Christ is the Supreme and Sovereign Lord over and above all that ever was and ever will be.
Am I risking being impractical today? Maybe. Do these truths endure for all eternity? Undeniably. We Christians boldly declare that He was the beginning but let us NEVER forget that He is also the end. There is a plan, an architect, a meaning, a reason, a purpose and an intricate tapestry of time and everything within it that has been designed by the God who works all things according to the counsel of His will. No accidents are with Him. No miscalculations or degrees of error. I promise you that when we arrive to Him there will be no need for Him to apologize for anything. Not a single mistake has been made by our Creator. Because of this I believe that much of Heaven’s praise will proceed from our stunned souls as we are given perfect understanding of how and why God did all that He did. There will be no question left without perfect answer.
Rest in Him today. Keep calm and carry on. Don’t fret because of the apparent chaos in your world. The Master knows what He is about. He is working out in perfection the exact plan He has held for the ages. You are part of that plan so bow your heart and give Him great thanks that He thinks on you today. He fights for you. He moves toward you in boundless love and asks you again, “Do you trust Me?”