Earthly Disappointments and Heavenly Glory!
Richard Hollerman
Life can sometimes be uplifting, joyful, and blessed! On the other hand, it can also be painful, depressing, and overwhelmingly difficult. We know that in the presence of God, we find “fullness of joy” and “pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11). But while we are here, facing the various challenges that are part of our earthly existence, how do we face each new day?
In the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, how are you coping? If we are realistic, we know that there are manifold other problems that can plague our life and give a bitterness to what we know could be a sweet experience.
Maybe you are facing a health issue. Each day and each year, your health declines. Or perhaps a health crisis comes and you must battle this to keep from further pain or even death! Maybe you have lost your job and wonder how to pay the rent or the mortgage. You may be without daily food and look longingly at the ads that feature delicious edibles and tasty treats. Maybe your car has stopped working and now you must wonder how to repair it, replace it, or find someone who can work on it. It may be that you are fully aware that your body is not at all like it was ten, twenty, or fifty years ago. Each day, as you peer into the mirror, you are reminded of your decline. This sort of list could be expanded indefinitely.
As I sung a song yesterday, I came upon these lyrics:
Trials dark on every hand, and we cannot understand
All the ways that God would lead us to that blessed promised land;
But He’ll guide us with his eye, and well follow till we die;
We will understand it better by and by.
Do these words by Charles A. Tindley mean anything to you? We just don’t understand why the trials come our day, but we do know that God knows and that is sufficient for us.
We imagine a better land
As we face these human dilemmas and earthly realities, we may daydream of a better place, a better situation, a better family, a better financial outlook, a better job, a better education, or a better location. Maybe we even find these thoughts to be painful for they are not harbingers of anything better on this earth. In fact, it would seem that life is all downhill and there is no remedy.
And so we allow our imaginations to sustain us during these life crises. I know what this is like and there are both positives and negatives to this reaction. Negatively, while happy imaginations may help us survive, they don’t really solve our situation. They may even bring pain since we know that nothing is getting better.
But there can also be help and healing in these imaginations. We not only remember “better times” and dream of “better times,” but if there is some substance and reality to these imaginations, they may be helpful and positive. According to God’s Word, there is a day coming when there will no longer be financial difficulties, health compromises, age limitations, personal rejections, or material lack. This is the plain teaching of Scripture!
Secular people around us and in society use various means to lift our spirits and encourage us to think thoughts that are better, happier, or more positive. Alas, these times of escape don’t last very long. The dream house that we imagine really is not there—and we must come home to a dwelling that is broken down, weather compromised, and quite limited. The dream marriage and family that we imagine is just not there. We either are single and must look at four bare walls, or we are married to a person who has totally devastated our craving for a blessed relationship and responsible children. We must put up with inferior food, lack of clothes, a terrible job, constant financial struggles, and health deterioration. Yes, life is not a dream—at least not a blessed dream, but a nightmare!
All of the vacations to Florida, to Hawaii, to Alaska, to Mexico, to Paris or London, or to the Caribbean will never give the fulfillment that we all crave—if we are truly saved and belong to God. The movies may portray the fulfillment of our dreams—with beautiful scenery, warm families, fulfilling jobs, plenty of money, and other earthly fulfillments. But after the movie, we find ourselves where we always were. We may lose ourselves in the escape of a book but still we must come to the last page—and we find ourselves still unfulfilled and lonely and lacking in life’s necessities.
At this point in my life, I may still not be able to uncover the real motivations for a country-wide tour that I made many years ago. This national venture took me to most of the states, where I saw the mountains, the valleys, the plains, the cities, the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as dipping into Canada and Mexico. But a car wreck brought this journey to an abrupt end.
Was I looking for something? I have always imagined that I was preparing myself for my life work of the future. And I was filling my mind with thoughts of blessedness. I wanted desperately to do the will of God and work for Him through life. I thought that this period of time and this long journey (of some 18,000 miles) would somehow prepare me to better fulfill this dream of doing the Lord’s will. But did it? God did bring me through with health and a heightened ability to imagine what America was like from North to South, from East to West, but did it really bring fulfillment? I thought that this journey was exciting and fulfilling, but I must admit that it left many parts of my mind still wanting more and wanting something other.
If you are a follower of Christ and long to fulfill the will of God in your life, you will know something of the inner urges I had and continue to have. Whenever you read Scripture, this unfulfillment springs to life and once again we long to know and do God’s will. We dream of a life of perfection, an environment of beauty, relationships without regret, and to beautiful vision of God Himself. We are reminded that the “gentle” will “inherit the earth” and “the pure in heart” will “see God” (Matthew 5: 5, 8; etc.). And these promises are not empty. They do give us a taste of the coming Day when everything good that we may imagine will come to pass.
The Lyrics of Spiritual Songs
Recently, as I sung in my personal hymn book, I was reminded as I often am. Consider these words from a favorite song:
This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world; I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees or skies and seas, his hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s World, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world, He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.
These words, by Maltbie Babcock, do portray the beauties of the earth. But they don’t exhaust them. They only arouse our imaginations and our hope for something beyond—something heavenly. And remember that if we belong to God Himself, this future “dream” will be unending! It will last forever, not merely for ten or fifty years here.
Another song puts it this way:
For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth over and around us lies
Again, the lyrics by Folliott Pierpoint, lift our spirits by reference to the earthly beauty around us. But this “beauty” only points us to the heavenly beauty that will never end!
Yet another song says it this way:
Fairest Lord Jesus! Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s Glory, Joy, and Crown!
Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.
And the next verse:
Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels heaven can boast.
Once again we see the beauties of nature around us, but it goes on to compare these beauties with that of Christ Jesus our Lord. In comparison, Jesus our Lord is far greater, far better, far more beautiful—at least to those who have eyes to see!
As we sing these kinds of songs, we receive a very small view of earthly beauty. But they only lift our spirits to the heavenly realities. Every star we see at night, every cloud that we view in the skies, every tree that greens in the springtime, every flower that grows in our gardens—all of this not meant for these few short years of this life. They are meant to point us to the heavenly realities of perfection that will never fade or never end!
Sadly, we remember that this life will soon end and the vast majority of people do not have a heavenly hope. The best they can hope for is for a few brief years on earth that are very much limited. Every blue sky will someday issue in a cloudy or rainy day. Every cardinal or blue jay that visits our bird feeder will one day die and go back to the earth. Every green field may be plowed under or burned. Every time that we see the beauty and smell the scents of spring we are reminded that this will be done in the fall and the winter. This earth will bring no lasting beauty.
But God wants these earthly expressions of beauty and loveliness to point us to His eternal dwelling, His heavenly beauties, and His truth and blessing. Are we willing to do this?
While we do walk through many earthly disappointments, let us remember that a Better Day is coming and this day will bring loveliness and beauty beyond our most glorious dreams! In the coming day of God’s Home and Christ’s return, the disappointments of earth and this day will pass away and the fulfillment beyond this life will be realized!
The beauties that we see in the natural world—whether it be the starry sky at night, or whether it be the green trees and grass of our park, or whether it be the woodlands and meadows of the countryside, all of this will one day pass away! But instead of lamenting its absence, let us rejoice that God (who created the natural world) knows what He is doing. He will bring something far, far better and more beautiful!
This is brought out in Romans 8, among other places. But in the eighth chapter of Romans we read:
The anxious longing of the creation waits eaterly for the revealing of the sons of God. . . . The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (vv. 19, 21). If we think that the beauty of this creation is amazing, we will have much, much more in the days before us! The disappointments and sorrows of this life (and there are many) will pass away and a glorious fulfillment awaits us in the future!
Someone wrote that God not only places within us a “dream” of a better place in a better land at a better time, but this is only a foreglimpse of the coming day of fulfillment. So let us rejoice through our tears! Let us find hope in the midst of earthly hopelessness. God is faithful and He will work all of this together for good—to those who love Him and to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Let us trust God and press on, with His strength, power, wisdom, and truth!
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