I’ve been thinking a lot lately about life and death and their relationship to one another. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that I’ve been thinking about this life in contrast to eternity. I picture it like two realities separated by a great chasm. On the one side is our day to day reality (the good, the bad, the ugly) and on the other side is a glorious reality shielded by a veil. What we know about eternity can feel kind of fuzzy. There are questions about how family relationships will work over there and whether we will know each other (I really should postpone writing this blog post until I finish Randy Alcorn’s book on Heaven but that may take a while). One thing I feel assured of is that anything good that we experience in this life is but a shadow of what will be in eternity. Any love or joy or fulfillment that we capture on this side of the chasm will be infinitely more real on the other side, and there will be nothing of this life that we will feel cheated of in the next.
But what about this chasm issue? I like the picture that some clever evangelist drew up many years ago of an empty cross bridging the gap between the two sides of the chasm. The cross is the bridge between this reality where fallen people live fallen lives in an utterly broken world and the reality of eternity where holy people live in the presence of a holy God in a world that is, well, whole.
One thought that I have captured from Mr. Alcorn’s introductory chapters is that, for the unbeliever this world is the closest they will ever get to heaven, whereas, for the one who has put their faith in Christ, this world is the closest they will ever be to hell. Let that one sink in for a minute. Think of a highlight reel of your life with the sweetest moments, the treasured memories, the most fulfilling seasons. What if that was really as good as it gets? I wonder if the wealthiest human or the most influential world leader would say that they found it all ultimately fulfilling. But what if the good things of this life are just a glimpse of a more glorious reality? Is there not something in all of us that longs for that? What would it mean if our losses, our failures, our griefs are just for a time and then will be redeemed?
There is an empty cross that spans the chasm. And the emptiness of that cross is paramount. That cross represents both the greatest loss and the greatest gain. That the Holy God Himself would send His perfect Son to die for an imperfect, fallen race represents a loss that we can’t even fathom. But the reality of an empty tomb on the third day signals the greatest gain and our greatest hope.
A day is coming for each of us when this reality comes to a close and an eternal reality begins. I am so very thankful and confident that the empty cross will more than support the weight of my hope and trust when that day comes for me and the veil will be lifted and I will get to walk in the full reality of life eternal.