Gleanings – What’s Real?
Hebrews 8:1-13
“They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; . .”
It is most reassuring to know there are things that endure. Think about it. What in this world can you rely upon?
It was just a few years ago that Americans considered their home their greatest investment. Gone! A home is now considered an albatross by many. In 2007 millions of Americans had achieved the ultimate dream – assets sufficient to live a rich and full retirement for 30 years or more. Many of the same will now work till death do us part. The church planting society I have been a part of for nine years imploded in the last sixty days. Of the many responses to the situation none are likely to even capture or unite a majority of us. We are scattered to the wind. Done.
A friend captured the sentiment this morning on Facebook quoting Jimi Hendrix: “And so castles made of sand fall in the sea…eventually.” What we hold is temporal, fleeting. Ultimately nothing will survive such that it will not end up on the trash heap of history. Everything we build will fall into the sea.
But beyond that is an eternal reality so comforting. That even places of worship here on earth are but pale imitations of things to come. This is counterintuitive for many. Sometimes we do not grasp that the new covenant is not only new but better than the old covenant and so we keep electing to live by it (law as opposed to grace). Regardless we are being told that on the horizon there are things that will not let us down, things that will not fail us. As Paul says we have a hope that does not disappoint.
When the pace of change and failure defeats us let us look to that which will endure, that which is really real. CS Lewis mused wonderfully about this in “The Great Divorce.” We think we know what grass is. But real grass is so real that it does not bend under our weight but actually pierces our feet. A stream is hard enough, that is real enough, to walk upon and yet it knocks us to the ground as if we had stepped upon a rapidly moving conveyor belt. The whitecaps bruise our shins. Of course that is grass and water in heaven of which we are only becoming a part. One day we will be similarly solid. One day. In the face of the temporal let us be encouraged by the reality that endures to eternal life. What we live is but a copy or shadow of things to come.