A Prayer for Eternity

Father,

It is said that you have put eternity, a desire for more than time can offer, right into our hearts.

In your book, it is also said that life and time are fleeting. We try to lay hold of them, but like a vapour, they are gone.

We confess, with hurt and vexation, that this is true. Even the best things do not last.

But you also promise you make everything beautiful in its time.

Really, Lord? Everything? That seems too good to believe, but we desperately want to see you try.

Please, Lord, even in places of disappointment and confusion, draw us near as we wrestle with you.

Bring us to your Son, Jesus.

Did he not know disappointment and confusion as he wrestled with you?

He did. Help us to see.

We want to see the God of eternity who became time-bound so we would live forever.

We want to see Jesus, who knew the ache of this life and its meaninglessness—how fleeting, how ordinary and uncurated, how heartbreaking.

He knew it just like us.

We want to see the one who was unfriended, bullied, beaten, violated, ended; nailed to a cross to die for sins that were not his own, but ours.

The one who had always known your love and pleasure yet became an object of wrath so we might know your love and pleasure forever.

You make all things, even the most gruesome event of all human history, the death of Jesus Christ, beautiful in your time. Help us to see it.

Teach us, Lord, like your Son, to live a life that is tugged ever forward by the audacious hope of the everlasting tomorrow.

Teach us, Lord, to live knowing that even hideous woundings can bring life and beauty and meaning.

Teach us to live believing that whatever you do, it endures forever.

Teach us, Father, to live the life you have given us, confessing that you make everything beautiful in your Son, Jesus.

Amen.

Text: Wendy Stringer