The middle

Sometimes I am so aware of the fragile and broken world we live in. It can be easy to forget that this isn’t the intended way of life, that there is hope beyond pain and suffering which we can’t understand.

The end is known; the victory already won. God paid the price for death with his own son, the most precious thing he could sacrifice for us. He has beaten death and sin and everything messy that comes with it. Yet for now we live in the middle, waiting for Christ’s return and knowing glory awaits. We have the promise of living in intimacy with God, in a perfect place free from death and suffering.

God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’^b or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21. 3-4

I look forward to that place, that perfection, the way we were created to be. But I don’t want to miss out on now, on seeing Phoebe grow up and nurturing her knowledge and hopefully trust in our creator. I want to help her through those moments, through the joyful parts of life which touch that future perfection, and the miserable ones which highlight how far we are from it. I don’t want to escape early to paradise, just because sin and suffering are in this world; I have my life here, God has placed me in this place, now, for Him. With this family, these friends, this city, these people, in the mess of this world.

So here I am, in the middle of it all, knowing there is a hope of something better and knowing it is worth persevering through the pain of this middle land to the victory which has been won for our future.