I have been reading a good old series of books many of you will know – Anne of Green Gables. This is actually the first time reading them because as a kid, I could never get past the first one … or more accurately, the first few chapters of the first one. But now I am rather enjoying them and learning too.
Here is an excerpt that I thought was interesting. It’s a perspective on a Scripture we often quote “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven …”. The context of the Scripture is the fact that heavenly things are eternal and earthly things will pass away. But here is another angle on the idea of being heavenly minded:
“I can’t help it,” said Ruby pitifully. “Even if what you say about heaven is true – and you can’t be sure – it may be only that imagination of yours – it won’t be just the same. It can’t be. I want to go on living here. I’m so young, Anne. I haven’t had my life. I’ve fought so hard to live-and it isn’t any use-I have to die-and leave everything I care for.”
Anne sat in a pain that was almost intolerable. She could not tell comforting falsehoods; and all that Ruby said was so horribly true. She was leaving everything she cared for. She had laid up her treasures on earth only; she had lived solely for the little things of life-the things that pass-forgetting the great things that go onward into eternity, bridging the gulf between the two lives and making of death a mere passing from one dwelling to the other-from twilight to unclouded day. God would take care of her there-Anne believed-she would learn-but now it was no wonder her soul clung, in blind helplessness, to the only things she knew and loved.”
So many times I have looked at that verse from the angle of security. Things in heaven will be there forever, where putting all your heart in things temporal will only leave you with nothing in the end. But I really loved her picture of things eternal helping to bridge the gap between the two worlds – heaven is a welcoming place because you’ve invested in it already, you’ve lived bits of it on earth, you’ve put your treasure there, and so you walk into the new world with joy and anticipation.
It’s not one or the other – live in this world or live in the next. It is a beautiful sequence.
