A Different Kingdom

A Different Kingdom

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:19

Twyla, one of my friends, always jokes, “I don’t understand it. You spend your whole life cleaning and fighting dust, and then they bury you in it.” Isn’t that the truth?

Our society seems to be comfortable talking about almost anything—any subject—except death. We don’t like to think of not being on this earth. Yet when we realize that we are only human—only dust—we have a better grasp of time. Only when we fully acknowledge that we can’t hold on to anything on this earth do we start looking ahead to eternity to come.

My friend Suzanne Woods Fisher says,

The Amish can teach us to slow down. Time is not something to be mastered, but a boundary to be respected. They remind us that Christians should look at life from a different perspective because we are part of a different kingdom—one that stretches into infinity.

“Run the race with eternity in view” and “What we do in this life echoes in eternity” are frequently quoted in sermons. And one thing the Amish know to be true: unlike humans, God is not in short supply of time. There is no limit to his days or his patience or his joy.

Spend a few minutes thinking about your last day—your last breath. What things are you focusing on now that won’t matter one bit then? Now consider what will matter most.

You will have to work by the sweat of your brow for only so many years. Then will come one moment when the sweat will be wiped away and a crown will be placed upon your head: the apostle Paul says, “The prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).

Dear heavenly Father, I thank You that our time on earth is limited, because there is something so much better in store for me!