“…I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”
The Good Shepherd never leaves the sheep. Here David uses the word forever. Forever is a word that we read in fairy tales and…the Bible. It is beyond our understanding and is somewhat “other worldly”. It deals with that looming nemesis called “time”. Time sets the boundaries around everything…good and bad. For example, we may say, “Time heals all wounds”, but then we say, “all good things come to an end”. Our very lives are contained within the constraints of time. It is a constant reminder of our own mortality. Even a “long long time” still has an end at some point. It is no wonder that, in our fairy tales, we write time out of the story. The happy ending is when things do not end…”and they lived happily ever after”. There is no measure, no ending for “forever”.
The Scripture tells us that forever is not a fairy tale. A fairy tale is a “make believe” attempt to offer some comfort to those longing for something more in this world. It is the “wish and a prayer” fantasy that briefly gives an escape to the realities of this life. Some see the Bible as the same thing. It was Karl Marx who said that religion is the “opiate of the masses”. He believed that God was merely a fairy tale manufactured to bring hope to a world headed for certain doom. Friend, if there is no God and if all we have is fairy tales to bring us temporary relief than we are hopeless, but…
…there is more! The Bible also talks about forever. However, this is no fairy tale dream that is used as a drug to ease the suffering of humankind on the way to annihilation. It is the truth about the power of God that vanquishes the enemy of death and opens the door to “eternity”. It is the proclamation of the reality of the Kingdom of God and the truth that we were created to be an eternal part of that Kingdom! To come into the flock of the Good Shepherd is more than changing care givers…it is changing the landscape of life itself. It is transforming that which is limited to that which is limitless! It takes that which is mortal and makes it immortal! The Apostle Paul says that we have “taken off mortality” and “put on immortality”.
Once again, it is the cross of Christ that makes this possible. Living forever is no longer a fairy. It is true that we were facing a certain end in this world but God came bursting into our world and made it possible for us to experience forever. Over the next few days as we work our way to the cross, we will look into this powerful truth.
Today, rest in the truth that there is a forever and it is no fairy tale!