Windows

Windows

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:1-3

Every year my neighborhood hosts a garden tour that is open to the public. One of the most beautiful gardens on the tour belongs to the house directly across the street from mine. From spring through fall, I am treated to stunning, storybook views every time I look out the window. Though my neighbor’s home is beautiful, I have often thought my more moderately priced home the better choice simply because of the view it affords.

When real-estate magnate Donald Trump was asked why the units in his buildings were selling while other buildings were not, here’s what he said: “Go and look at the windows in their building and then look at mine, and you will know the answer.”^a Paul Tripp cites this story in his book Forever: Why You Can’t Live without It, pointing out that life is all about windows. Large windows let in the light and add a feeling of spaciousness. If the view outside is lovely and interesting, all the better. If the windows are small and few, then the place will feel cramped and dark.

Tripp points out that all of us look at life through some kind of window. We may, he says, be looking through the window of past hardship or the window of philosophy or psychology or the window of the right-here-right-now. Whatever window we adopt has a profound effect on how we will live our lives.

Without the window of forever, Tripp says, peace and joy will be elusive. We will be thrown by circumstances. We will forget where we’re going and whom we belong to. But with forever in view, all that will change. Our hope will increase, our confidence will build. We will realize we are on a journey that will someday end in complete fulfillment. Let’s remember, as Tripp says, that we haven’t yet moved to our final address. Keeping this in mind will enable us, he says, to “face difficulty without wanting to give up and experience pleasure without becoming addicted to it. We live with hope in our heart, eyes to the future, and hands holding this present world loosely.”^b

Lord, I want heaven to fill my thoughts. Help me to listen carefully to what you have promised in your Word, I pray.

^a Paul Tripp, Forever: Why You Can’t Live without It (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 203.

^b Ibid., 37.