There is no line there

       The pastor at my church relayed an interesting story in his sermon this past Sunday. He spoke of a little boy, asked by his teacher to draw a picture of his vacation. The boy studied his canvas and sat puzzled. The teacher, seeing his quandary asked if she might lend a hand.  The boy noted that the picture was supposed to be the beach he spent his summer at with the sky above. The teacher said, well simply draw a line across the page, what is above you will color the sky and what is below the line you will color as the sea. The boy shook his head and noted his Dad had taken him out into the water in a boat and that "there is no line there".  I have often noted the same thing from my perch above the sea in my summer abode. Looking out on the sea each morning it is often impossible to determine where the water meets the sky, it is seamless. The shades of greens and blues and grays often simply blend into each other, "there is no  line there".

        In these troubling times, there might certainly be a desire to seek comfort in God. Man thinks the end times are near as witnessed by the many horrors we foist on each other, nations against nations, hatred and divisiveness seem to prevail. I am amused by those with the temerity and arrogance to inform us the date and time the world will end. These kinds of notions and prognostications have been going on since the dawn of time perhaps and certainly escalated after the Crucifixion. So many Christians 'knowing' the end times are near, in their lifetime even. The Apostles also seemed to think it was so. So much of Paul  speaks of not marrying since the Jesus would certainly return any day now. And it was not so; even Jesus himself noted that 'only he Father knows'.  But still we humans seek the "line" that will demarcate this age from the next; our lives to judgment and our heavenly inheritance.

          The truth once again is that "there is no line there" save our own mortality and that too is not something we can put any certainty on - at least as to the exact date and time.  It is more likely that heaven may be on earth and that our goals of wholeness , happiness and fulfillment in our humanity is something that we may not totally achieve in this life but we catch glimpses and our own partial progress.  This is perhaps what gives meaning to our lives. We strive to be the person we were created to be cluttered if you will by some of the crap mankind has created that obscures and hinders us in that process. How sad, how horrible really, for the person who thinks they "win" because they will die with the most toys.  That is not what we are striving for even if the holiday season promotes it and Madison Avenue tries to live it 24/7/365. 

           As love is the arbiter of all Biblical and religious conflicts and contradictions, so too is love the answer to our lives in total. Love is "the line" , sometimes hazy but always certain that marks the earth from the sky, our human existence from eternal life. Perhaps it is not so important after all where the line is so much as to know that our lives and our world blends one into the next and the only continuity of life is love.

         For lives of love and heaven in our lifetime, I pray

Revelation 21:1-8

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them; 
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.’