My grandmother used to tell us that she made it a point to never expect life to turn out good so when it didn’t, she wasn’t disappointed.  I don’t know if this attitude came from living through the Great Depression but it unfortunately colored her viewpoint for the rest of her life.  She definitely was a glass half empty kind of person and there was no convincing her otherwise.  If life took a good turn she was surprised.  In actuality, her life was quite interesting.  Grandma was a great story-teller and the wonderful tales of her youth are still burned in my memory.  The majority of life was really good for her but her low expectations got in the way of her seeing it.

I’ve seen it so often that perspective is limited by low expectations. But it’s also true that it is constrained by time.  If we see life as a journey with the bookends being birth and death then all our decisions are based on this time frame.  But what if we were to view life from an eternal perspective?  We certainly wouldn’t be hemmed in by time because the span of a lifetime would be miniscule compared to eternity.  Our earthy expectations would be greatly outweighed by heavenly expectations.  It would be freeing to see life this way.

This is what I think Jesus meant when He said, “You will know the truth and the truth with set you free.”   Believing the truth that Jesus died to wipe away the sin in our lives certainly does set us free.  However if we take that truth to heart, it will change our whole perspective on life.  We will see all of life from an eternal perspective.  Things that normally would bother us, don’t have meaning anymore.  They are minor bumps in the road when you see that life’s journey goes on forever.  This truth frees us to love more and live more.  We don’t have to worry about what we have or don’t have here on earth because we know that this earthly existence is not all there is.  We can be content with what blessings we do have here and be grateful.  Heaven will be so amazingly wonderful that the best earth has to offer will pale in comparison.

Now I know life can be hard and keeping an eternal perspective can be elusive when the worries of this world bear down on us.  I catch myself when stress levels are high, falling into a narrow view of my life again.  I give up my freedom for worry.  It’s hard not to be anxious when we remember 9/11 or see gunfire in places we thought were safe like our schools.  But remember the bigger picture. This is not all there is. There is an eternity of peace and safety where there will be no need for doctors because no one will be sick any more. I’m going to have to get a new job!  Maybe God will let me be a gardener in Heaven.  I would so enjoy tending flowers with the Master Gardener someday!  Yes, eternity will be lived out someday in heaven but it’s already begun right now here on earth if we can only have the eyes to see it. I wish I could have convinced my grandmother of this.  Life could have been so much richer for her if only she could have had an eternal perspective.