The Bungee Cord. 12-2-24
Hello,
How long does it take to walk around Harvard Gulch Park?
At least that is the answer if you are a 3 ½ year old who makes snow balls from the barely snow covered grass, who discovers a big leaf and wants to see how far the wind will carry it, who sees a squirrel and wants to watch it climb a tree, who sees a playground with a sandbox, who walks by an oak tree and searches for acorns, who spots a pair of ducks in the stream, and who wants to jump over cracks in the sidewalk. Who cares how long it takes?
What a wonder it is to see what it is like to live in the moment and be captivated by it.
Harvard Gulch Park is adjacent to my son’s and his wife’s house in Denver where we went to spend Thanksgiving. My youngest son, his wife, and their son (3 ½ years old) came from Brooklyn. Thanksgiving was a chilly day, but not too cold to go for a walk around the park with my grandson. I figured it would be nice to get about a half hour of fresh air. I got quite a bit more than a half hour.
Time has a way of taking hold of our adult lives, even on Thanksgiving. Turkeys to cook, football games to watch, preparing for people to come over, flights to catch, rental cars to return. Even though we can feel time’s leash tugging us into the next moment, yet we try to squeeze life out of the present and enjoy the moment. Sometimes we are more successful at that than other times. As we gathered around the feast-full table on Thanksgiving, I found myself a little less tugged, but when the meal ended, there came time’s tug.
Often times, Christians misunderstand the gift of eternal life that Jesus gives. Many understand eternal life to be that which God gives to us after we die, something ahead of us when time has no pull. Jesus, however, tells us that eternal life is not something that begins when we die, instead it is something that comes to us in this life when God embraces us in his eternal love. Listen to what Jesus says in John 17:3, “3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” When Jesus speaks of “knowing”, he is not talking about an intellectual assent or discovery, rather Jesus is speaking about a union of love that has the power to bring forth life. The Apostle Paul in Romans 6 put it this way, “0The death he (Jesus) died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” In other words, with whom Christ has joined himself live in eternal life….now! Every moment of this life is filled with eternity, and when this life is over, life, like a flower, blooms with eternity.
The world may tug us around on time’s leash, but not Jesus. Jesus comes to make every moment eternal, so we, like a 31/2-year-old child can live in each moment and be captivated by it. The hug of a loved one does not end when the hug is released or the loved on is gone. The joy of a laugh is not squelched when tears stream down one’s cheek. The freedom of forgiveness is not captured when we mess up or fail. The power of hope is not burst like a bubble when tragedy’s pin strikes.
Surely, the joy, wonder, love and peace will be of a magnitude which cannot be imagined when the dimness of this life is removed and we come face to face with God (1 Cor. 13), but as we walk in the Harvard Gulch of this life we can experience time’s leash untethered and find ourselves , as the writer of the hymn “Love Divine All Loves Excelling” penned, lost in wonder, love and praise.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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