What is unseen is eternal

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (TNIV) -

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

My thoughts -

While "what is seen" in this passage refers to the troubles and suffering that we face in this life, I don't think it is inappropriate to apply it to anything in this world. We have just celebrate a holiday where we give thanks for all of the blessings that we have. It was a wonderful time to spend with family and reflect on the joy that our loved ones bring into our lives. Now we've reached Black Friday, a day which is appropriately named if you ask me. This is our national retail-stores-need-today-to-get-in-the-black day. It is also, to someone who hates shopping, a dark day; a day to stay home, wait it out, and resurface some other time. On this "shopping holiday" we need to keep in mind that, in the same way that our suffering does not endure, so to does our stuff not endure.

My grandfather passed away in 1988. I spent yesterday with my grandmother remembering him. Funny, though, that all of the stuff that he bought for me (he spoiled us grandchildren terribly) isn't around anymore. I can't remember most of it. We didn't talk about it. What lasted was the love that he had for us, that he gave to us freely. There was no one who could make me feel as loved and as cherished and as special as my Papaw. He was a living example to me of the love of God.

The things of this world don't last. Today's thoughtful gift is rotting in tomorrow's landfill. Today's stress about bills is lost in tomorrow's joy. The things of this world are fleeting. None of this lasts, not even ourselves or our loved ones. Whether we want this season of life to end yesterday or to go on forever; whether we feel especially blessed or especially cursed; wherever we are in life it doesn't last. All that we see is not eternal.

So we fix our eyes like Paul not on what is seen but what is unseen. We place our hope not in the things of this world but on that which created this world and everything in it, that which is not temporary, that which will never waste away. We need God. We need Jesus. We need to live following Jesus's example and loving God and loving others.

We may not get a tangible benefit in this life by forsaking earthly things and doing something crazy like loving our enemies. But when we live according to God's will we begin to acquire a taste of the things to come. We begin to turn our focus away from these things that we see that waste away and toward that which is eternal. And when we do this we find a hope that was lacking here in the earthly things.

I wish I could adequately express the hope that I've found in Jesus. I wish I could find the words that could explain it with all of the power and joy that it fills me with. But alas, though I may talk a lot (ask anyone who knows me) I can't seem to find the right words. They all seem disproportionately weak and clumsy.

But know this: Fixing your eyes on what is unseen works. And usually I find that I can see just enough to get me to tomorrow. And I am filled with enough hope and enough joy and enough love to get me through just one more day. And then when that one more day comes I catch just enough of a glimpse of heaven to get me to the next.