Eternity. All of us will experience it in some form, and most of us are totally oblivious to its existence. We live our lives like this is all there is. But, is it?

I believe that within all of us there is an innate need to believe in something. There is a hole, an emptiness that we are all trying to fill. Randy Alcorn, on the back cover of his book, “In Light of Eternity,” states, “The deepest longing of your heart is for one person and one place. Jesus is that person. Heaven is that place.”

Last week, I asked you where you think you are going.  The thought was initiated by the sudden death of a dear friend and the peace we had in knowing that ‘Heaven’ was firmly in his grasp. This week I’d like to share with you an excerpt from another of Randy Alcorn’s books entitled, “Heaven”.

“As human beings, we have a terminal disease called mortality. The current death rate is 100 percent. Unless Christ returns soon, we’re all going to die. We don’t like to think about death; yet, worldwide, 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and nearly 11,000 every hour. If the Bible is right about what happens to us after death, it means that more than 250,000 people every day to either to Heaven or Hell.

David said, “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is a breath.” (Psalm 39: 4- 5). Picture a single breath escaping your mouth on a cold day and dissipating into the air. Such is the brevity of life here. The wise will consider what awaits us on the other side of this life that so quickly ends…Most people live unprepared for death. But those who are wise will go to a reliable source to investigate what’s on the other side. And if they discover that the choices they make during their brief stay in this world will matter in the world to come, they’ll want to adjust those choices accordingly…Jesus came to deliver us from the fear of death, “so that by his death he might destroy him who hold the power of death–that is, the devil–and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2: 14 – 15)…What delivers us from the fear of death? What take’s away death’s sting? Only a relationship with the person who died on our behalf, the one who has gone ahead to make a place for us to live with him. If we don’t know Jesus we will fear death and its sting–and we should.”

Though we are all saddened by his sudden passing, we have not “lost” our dear friend, Craig Stafford. We know where he is. We’ve just temporarily lost contact with him. And, in light of eternity, this life is really not that big a deal…