This has been a high-maintenance year for our house. The painters are finished with the house, garage, porch and deck, and they all look brand new and beautiful. The wonderful old maple tree that fell over recently is about to be replaced. My husband Neil and I went to the nursery Saturday and picked out a beautiful new maple to take its place.
By the time you read this that tree will be planted and gracing our recently revitalized home. The future of the house and yard is now looking a lot brighter.
When we speak of incurring the cost of house maintenance, Neil and I consider the very real
possibility that the house will outlive us. It was built in the 1940s, so it is already older than
either of us, and at this point it is looking like it could easily make it at least another 50 years or
so, which is longer than we imagine we will be around.
We are planning for a future in which we will not be here to enjoy the fruits of our labors. But isn’t that what life is supposed to be about? When people raise their children, they do so praying that they will outlive them and continue to follow the ways that the parents have deemed most important. When new rules and laws are made, they are looking at the present and what is to come.
The future of each person is determined by our Father God before we take our first breath. We may choose to walk in our own paths, but the day of our birth and the day of our death has already been assigned, whether we wish to acknowledge it or not. Our Creator God has a plan for each of us. He sorrows when we fail to recognize Him as God and, conversely, He is full of joy and love when we do commit our lives to honoring Him.
How exciting it is to know the heart of God – the Creator of the universe. As I read God’s words in the scriptures I see His great love and great sorrow in His actions as the story of his creation from Genesis to Revelation takes shape and moves through the stages of my life and the lives of all of those gone before me. If I wish to take a peek at the future all I need to do is read God’s words in the Bible.
One of the things scripture tells me about God is that “God is Love.” Can I even imagine what that love is like? Of course not. But do I want to know what Godly love is – absolutely! Especially as it surrounds me completely. Even as I am enveloped in God’s love I cannot grasp it because, as the Apostle Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”
As I completely surrendered my life to God’s direction I could feel that love surrounding me and an overpowering joy entering my life. Now I am always encircled by God’s love, and yet I cannot begin to fathom what it will be like when I reach heaven and am face to face with my Father God, Jesus my Savior and the Holy Spirit.
Overwhelmed is my thought. I imagine my heart, were it still human then, would stop beating at the first moment of contact. Thankfully, God has made a way for us to have this everlasting – beyond the grave –
relationship with Him possible, and I am looking forward to enjoying eternity with Him.
Because God is love, Jesus is also that same magnificent love. Why else, other than love, would the God of creation come to earth to save me from my own destruction? I am certainly unworthy of such a love, and yet that love is surrounding me at this very moment, and I am ecstatically warmed by this truth. All of us who are God’s people surely have the joy of the Lord within us because of His love. Though death and disease and wars surround us, the truth of this Godly love gives us an everlastingly joyful heart.
As I look to my future I do not know what awaits my physical body or my mental state, but what I am assured of is that God is with me, He loves me, and I can trust Him to care for me every moment of my present and future life.
My future is secure. I pray that you, too, are making plans for your future, and that they may be
the plans God has set out for you.
Editor’s note: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
