Destination Eternity

Annie twisted the knob on the GPS, tapped in the address and we're off to turn right in half a mile and then left at the next road. We take the voice's advice religiously. Really we aren’t that worried because if we make a mistake, the voice through the speaker will assure us that “she” is recalculating our route.

We are visiting family in Atlanta and we decide to take the babies to the aquarium. It seemed a better choice than the zoo for babies. The lighted tanks would draw their attention. They could follow the shapes and movements of the creatures of the sea through the thick acrylic viewing tanks.

We push them in strollers. They catch glimpses of yellow fish and the giant whale sharks. They watch the manta rays doing a ballet of sorts, curling up and over, sailing in the water like giant kites.

I had forgotten what the sea holds and what I never see.

I remember that I must see with eyes of faith. This world doesn’t have viewing windows that let us in on what is just past our seeing but exists all the same.

Faith knows that the address we must enter in daily is eternity. Our path there is planned, calculated:

Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. (Is. 30:21)

Eventually, we are all going to get to our destination. We can go without direction or we could choose to walk by faith. We can choose to listen and follow. Our faith isn't blind. It sees the undeniably unseen.

Some will go in the way that seems right and find themselves lost without hope in this world--directionless and unbelieving that the sea holds anything but salt water, believing life on earth's dirt is all there is. They deny the darkness beyond this dimly lit world, the gulf of sin that separates them from the Holy Creator of All.

Others will go the way of faith. They know their preset destination is Eternity with Christ Jesus. They listen for the Small Voice from the Big God as He leads them to the place that is just beyond their seeing. This is the life that pleases God. They seek to settle their hearts there. Maybe it is the hardest life to settle into, to live peacefully here with an eye on there. It's tempting to crane the neck, to want to see what's coming around the corner.

We must learn to live in the now before we can settle our hearts into living in our final destination.

To live by faith we must see what is invisible and hear what in inaudible. We must grasp the mystery when reality is just beyond our understanding. Faith isn’t built on great hope but truth in hard reality---glimpses of grace along a path scattered with beautiful nibbles igniting the appetite for the more.

I stand by the big tank, a high-definition underwater peek at a greater reality, and I am filled with wonder.

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Counting the graces with Ann:

- babies eating blueberries

- watching Sadie and Jordan turning their tassels

- five generations celebrating Mother's day

- homemade Mother's day card and plastic Ninja accessories for his "cool" Mom

- heartfelt love from the pen of my man-boy

-for getting to parent children and grandchildren with the man I love

-for getting to the gate just in time to make the flight home

-graduation parties with kids we watched grow from the crib to the car

-pointing out wonders to the grandbaby

-watching Ashley be a mother to Nora

-the way Naomi says Eliot--with several "L" sounds as it rolls off her tongue

-cancer, God is bigger than cancer (this one is hard)