Looking Up

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." (v. 16-17)

Having a gloomy moment? Or a depressing day? Well, thank goodness it is for a short while. I remember when teaching the youth asking the question, "what is a day compared to eternity?" We will suffer once in a while, but in comparison to the eternal life with God, does it compare? Regardless, it is usually a matter of perspective. What do we have today that will last forever? Is it not our life with Christ, our fellow brothers and sisters, and our faith and praise to Him? Then where should our focus be on. If it is simply just on the moments of our lives, and allow those moments to dictate our emotions and attitude on life, then we are missing the whole picture. If we view our lives at a greater level, then we could have a proper perspective. It is like the difference between viewing a single tree and an entire forest. We can spend much time with the details of a single tree or a few trees. We may find many good things, but also many bad things. However, if all our time is spent on just that, then we can miss the beauty of the entire forest. Every event of our lives are equally significantly important, but we cannot also fixate on certain events. Otherwise, we may miss the words from our Lord.

Will we live our lives according to specific events, or do we live according to the ways of the Lord? We could look down and either relive certain events of our lives or prepare for certain events of the future. Or we could look up and live each moment as they come through the relationship with our Lord. With every moment comes a new one. Is our lives dictated by events, or do we live a life enjoying each moment with those who we love, especially with our Lord Jesus Christ?