The Phil Files

I can remember as a boy, in the summer between my fifth and sixth grade years in school, I was trying to wrap my head around eternity — what forever meant. I know now that this mental struggle was part of the journey through puberty as the abstract thinking part of my mind began to unfold. Sometimes in those long ago days, forever felt daunting. Sometimes it seemed wonderful. Sometimes it was just flat out scary. All the time, forever seemed like … well … like a long long time.

Those years are on my mind today as I prepare to help with the funeral for the mother of one of my childhood friends. This mother’s name is June Smith. For all of my life, I have known her as Mrs. Smith. Her presence is frozen in my mind as Brad’s mom.

As we prepared for her funeral, the family spoke with quiet assurance of June’s “forever” as she passed from this life to the next:

June Fry Smith entered the presence of the Lord and began a wonderful new life. … Knowing all good things in life come to an end, June looked forward to the next life and being in the presence of The One who blessed her so much in this life.

It is not surprising that when I opened Mrs. Smith’s Bible, it fell open to a well marked verse in the most used portion of her of Bible (Ephesians 1 and 2):

In Him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire the possession of it, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14 RSV).

I like the strong flavor of the words “salvation” and “believed” and “sealed” and “promised” and “guarantee” and “possession” and “inheritance.”  These strong words are ours because of grace and God  and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. These words remind us of the joy of our forever in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Seems like I deal a lot more with “forever” issues these days. Of course the reality is, I have always dealt with them, I hope that I am just much more aware of these forever realities now than in previous years. So when I come to those closing words of great Scripture passages that include the word forever, I pay more attention to the forever now than before. These “forevers” are not just part of the window dressing of a great passage, but are instead the holy exclamation mark that punctuates and highlights the importance of the sure hope we have in Jesus.

So today, when I pray the Lord’s prayer, I will rejoice that all forevers belong to the Lord, who taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be they name.

Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors;

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

Forever!

Amen.