Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains
were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Psalm 90:1–2
Time is not infinite. It is part of the created order.
We are part of the same creation, so we are bound by time – for now. Generations come and go, and the Creator is there – before all of them, through all of them, and after all of them.
Though bound by time, our souls are eternal because life proceeds from God who is eternal – He alone is infinite.
You may notice a tension here – we are eternal souls, but we exist now in temporal creation, and the two cannot coexist forever. This reality is palpably felt in times when the eternal soul is separated from the physical creation. We long for permanence but, whether it is physical death or hospital visits for surgery, we cannot escape being confronted with our mortality – from feeling a blow from the blunt end of a broken creation. Hence, we groan.
“You return man to dust” (Ps. 90:3), “our outer self is wasting away” (2 Cor. 4:16). Like a fading flower or a vanishing vapor, our temporal life stands in stark contrast to the One for whom “a thousand years are but as yesterday” (Ps. 90:4). The same Psalm exhorts us to “number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v.12). This is a call to weigh what really matters. It is futility to spend your life “climbing a ladder” only to find your ladder was leaning against the wrong wall and there is nothing at the top rung but you.
At the end of our days, there is God. “It is appointed for man to die once, after that comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27). The infinite, personal Creator is good and loving. He has disclosed Himself so we can know Him and enjoy Him. He has entered our brokenness and taken it upon Himself so that we who entrust ourselves to Him, might receive His goodness so that we can be reconciled and acceptable to Him, the infinite, holy God.
To trust Him is to enjoy Him. “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Ps. 90:14). Such is the case with the home-going of our dear brother, Louis Utsey. He now walks with God – not by faith, but by sight. Louis loved God and enjoyed Him in his earthly life. John, his neighbor and best friend, said of Louis, “He was happy in what he was doing.” True. He was happy in God’s goodness and grace. This makes his home-going bitter-sweet. Bitter because such separation is a manifestation of broken creation and we will miss him terribly; but it is sweet because now Louis can say, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore!” (Ps. 16:11).
This reality that reminds us of our transience, also reminds us of the urgency of the unfinished task of proclaiming the finished work of Jesus Christ for our redemption and reconciliation to God. Live as a sent person with the end in view, so that it shapes how you view circumstances and how you engage the people around you. May we be as joyfully faithful as Louis was in this stewardship.
Copyright © 2020 Grace Bible Church, All rights reserved.