My mother would always say, "When I get old...." She said it right up until she was 95 years old, and then she stopped saying it and moved to heaven. Now, she's younger than springtime.
When I was young(er) I wondered why all the old people thought about heaven all the time. My life was full, and heaven was way down the list of things that I regularly thought about. I was mystified about why they were always thinking about the next life when there were so many things to do in this one. I thought - as I did about so many things - "I'll never be that way when I'm old."
Ah! The ignorance of youth.
I also saw 'old' people in restaurants and various places, and they were dressed in comfortable clothes and shoes, and I noticed everything about them. Especially, I wondered what they saw in each other :-) I remember thinking, "I'll never dress that way.... wear my hair that way ... wear glasses ... " Looking back, I was not sympathetic to the elderly. I was not charitable. At least, not on the inside. I'm sure glad I'm not the same person today that I was back then. (How many things do I still have wrong?)
When my husband and I are in restaurants and various places, we dress in comfortable clothes and shoes, we share a meal, we wear glasses. We couldn't care less what the young people think!
And I talk about life in future dimensions. I don't think of heaven, per se, because my understanding of what is immediately 'next' is far different than it was way back then. I know a lot more about it ... and I can't wait. I'd trade this life for the next one in a heartbeat. Wouldn't even have to think about it.
I feel like Paul did, when he said that he would rather be there, but he needed to be here to finish his work. Of course, my work is nothing like his was, but it's the purpose God has in mind specifically for me here on earth. And I will obediently make every effort to fulfill it.
Still ... every spare moment of my life here is involved in preparation for my life there. I'm just a-passin' through.
I love my life here. Always have. I know the Lord will correct me in those things not perfected in this life. But, still, I hope and believe that in spite of all my shortcomings I will look him in the face ... then fall at His feet ... and hear him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
As the old song says ... "That will be glory for me."
A Child of the King
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