Carpe Aeternum

They will ask the way to Jerusalem and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the LORD with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.

Before your person died, you may have engaged in conversations about your mortality with a sense of glibness. When a friend asked, “What would you want to do if you knew you’d die tomorrow?” you could think of a laundry list to fill the time—Starbucks with a friend, a trip to Venice, a ride on the world’s largest roller coaster. Chances are, the items that filled your imaginary bucket list were a mix of the mundane and the extraordinary. If you knew your time was short, you’d want to make the most of it. You’d want to fill the moments with love and warmth and thrills and delight. You’d want to carpe diem, seize the day.

Now that you live with grief, you may not like entertaining thoughts of your own mortality. You’ve seen what it looks like to have a loved one granted a finite amount of time. You’ve had to wrestle with how to help your person spend their last days or hours. You know that the idea of seizing the day, while exciting, can sometimes be engulfed in life’s harder realities. To give you energizing hope in grief, you need something more than seizing the day.

After the people of Judah were in Babylonian exile for many years, God anointed Jeremiah to prophesy about the rebuilding of Jerusalem. For those who had wept when they remembered Zion (see Psalm 137:1), Jeremiah’s news brought a thrill of hope. After so much sorrow in exile, the moment Israel longed for was finally approaching. When, years later, Nehemiah guided Israel in the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall, the people worked with vigor to realize their long-held dreams. This was the moment, their finest hour! Or was it?

Years before Israel’s dream was ever realized, Jeremiah knew that while seizing the day might give the people initial energy for the tasks that faced them, they’d need a stronger power for the long haul. Rather than fix their eyes only on what lay before them, the people would need to bind themselves to God with an everlasting covenant. They’d need to live with eternity in mind. This perspective would undergird them on days when their carpe diem energy kicked in. It would also sustain them on days when the task seemed long and monotonous. To live fully again, Israel would need to grasp hold of and delight in God’s eternal plan for them. They’d need to carpe aeternum—seize eternity—instead.

As you move and live with grief, as you “start back home” toward a new life after loss, God invites you to seize eternity too. Yes, learn to take pleasure in this day and all it offers. But more than that, cling to the reality that these “light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17, NIV). You can live with grief and thrive after loss because God has bound himself to you in love, an eternal covenant that fuels your work today and will carry you forward into the good future he has planned for you.

Do you think I’d withdraw my holy promise? or take back words I’d already spoken? I’ve given my word, my whole and holy word.

He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

A Prayer: God, I want more than to live for today. Teach me to seize eternity and live with your greater purpose in mind. As I rebuild my life, show me how to invest in the work you have laid before me with a mindset marked by hope. Give me grace when I doubt; give me comfort when I am discouraged. You rebuilt Israel’s walls, and you’ll rebuild my life. Give me confidence to live like I believe this. Amen.

An Activity for Today: You’ve traveled through forty days of remembrance. On this final day, use the space below to write a letter to your person. Allow the format to give voice to the things you need to say. Invite God to speak to your heart as you put words to the emotions you hold around your loss. Thank him for walking beside you through grief toward joy.

• I’m sorry . . .
• I forgive you . . .
• I want you to know . . .
• I love you . . .

A Song to Encourage Your Heart: “Father, Let Your Kingdom Come” by The Porter’s Gate