A View From The Top

 

Several folks were enjoying a meal together in a restaurant with conversation among themselves about nothing in particular and everything in general. One of them was preparing to leave and mentioned they hoped to see everyone again. Someone at the table responded by saying they hoped the next time they saw each other it would be right here sharing a meal. We meet people in a wide range of places under a variety of circumstances. We meet them during times such as illness, loss of loved ones, dealing with some emotional stress, at parties, at school, at work, and during worship. I know you can think of other times and places, but you get the picture. Some of those times of being together are wonderful and we certainly would want to see one another again in a similar situation. There are however those times when I wouldn’t want to see that person again, in the place I left them. If I last saw someone with health issues, I would hope to see them next time well and happy. I would not like to repeat a visit to a funeral home to see you again because you had lost another loved one. If I had parted ways with someone on bad terms, I would hope the next meeting we had would be to mend our differences. If I had spent some time with someone who was not a Christian, I would like to think that the next time we met they would have obeyed the gospel. Better yet, I would hope that I had taken time to teach them and encourage them in the way of the Lord. A lot of the folks we meet are brief encounters and we will probably never see them again upon this earth.

A story is told of a little boy who sat in his grandmother’s lap and looked up at her as she worked on her needlepoint. After a while, the boy noticed that the more she worked the uglier the underside of her needlepoint became. It wasn’t until she was finished with it that the boy got a look at the top of her work and saw that she had created a beautiful garden scene. There are times in life when we just can’t understand what’s going on and why life seems to be so tough. We get bombarded with sickness, suffer the loss of loved ones, endure relationship problems, get entangled in family feuds, encounter financial woes, school troubles, and the list goes on and on. It can make it seem as though life is a constant up-hill climb. I wonder if we aren’t often like the little boy and can only see the messes in our lives because we can only see things looking up from the bottom.

[1 Timothy 6:12] I’m reminded of what God told Job when he was looking at the ugliness of his own life. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy?... (Job 38:4-11). I know it’s hard to realize now, but God is preparing something beautiful for us, and we have to be patient until we can see life and our life with a view from the top. Life is so uncertain as most of us have experienced so it is always important to make the best of the moment we have. What would we do before departing a happy gathering if we knew we would never see one another again? Paul, the apostle, and some elders of the church faced this dilemma. “And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. Then they all wept freely, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship” (Acts 20: 36-37). All of God’s faithful can say, “I hope to see you again, but if not here, then in a far better place.” What makes a good life? Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold to eternal life.