To understand the full wonder and beauty of life with God, I need to understand Who God is and what my Eternal life cost Him.
God wants me to reflect on what is taking place in my relationship with Him, where blessings come from, how they work, and what lies behind them. Thoughts like these give God the opportunity to reveal to me what will provide the right answers to my questions.
For example, when I married, I assumed the responsibility of caring for my family and providing for the material well-being of all its members. In time, I notice that I am perceived as someone who disappears from home early in the morning and reappears in the evening. Few people are interested in where I have been, what difficulties I have faced, or whether I managed to earn anything. All I hear is what else we need to buy to make our home comfortable and where we should go on vacation. I have nothing against comfort or travel, but it may happen that no one ever appreciates my emotional and spiritual contribution to my family’s well-being. Instead, it is treated as an obligation that I must fulfill without question. Yet I spend my life on it—my own life—and everything is reduced to a single question: ‘Where is the money?’
Although money cannot buy happiness, many husbands discover the true character of their wives only when they lose their jobs or are no longer able to work. Wives, too, very often begin to appreciate their husbands and their care only after they lose them. But while I am still alive, I would like simply to be noticed as a human being who, besides working and earning money, is a unique person with unique qualities.
Now let us apply this example to our relationship with God. He is the Maker of my life and the Author of everything that sustains it. He knows better than I do what I need for happiness and health, and He gladly cares for all my needs. Even before I was born, the Lord put into effect in this world His plan to save me from the power of sin and grant me the privilege of Eternal life, on the condition that I accept this Gift. That plan is now at work, and setting it in motion cost the Creator dearly. He had to pay for it with the life of His only Son. He gave Him over to the anguish of eternal death in order to give me Eternal life.
To draw my attention to Himself, He sends me many evidences of His love, care, and wisdom. He directs my eyes to Jesus so that in Him I may see and find every blessing my soul needs, believe in Him as my personal Savior, and on the basis of this hope receive the Gift of Eternal life. There is no other Name and no other way by which people may be saved. No religion of good works can give humanity what God offers through faith in His Son. He gives life without limits—Eternal life. And this life consists in knowing the Father and the Son.
Who will appreciate this? Who will believe it? And having believed, who will stop to consider what God experienced in making such a sacrifice? What does He sacrifice even now as He cares for my well-being and happiness? God, too, gives His life and His strength so that it may be well with me. It pains Him to hear the demand, ‘Where are Your blessings?!’ He is a living Person, and He is pleased when I think about where all this abundance comes from, what it costs, and what price was paid for it. When I see God’s love in all of this and thank my Creator, seeking to know Him personally and to have the closest possible relationship with Jesus, it gladdens God’s heart and moves Him to protect me in a special way in this world and to care for me.
God’s love and His ways are not always what I imagine them to be. Sometimes His actions surpass my knowledge of Him, and I simply do not understand such love and mercy or the depth of His tenderness and care for me. Yet He accepts me and always loves me unconditionally.
Jesus promises me many good things and privileges, both here on Earth and in His Kingdom, if I remain faithful and obedient and become an overcomer. Abundant life is the most precious Gift God could possibly have conceived in exchange for my heart and my faith in Him.
He does not give me a life of sin. Instead, He removes lawlessness from my heart and will then destroy it completely throughout the entire Universe. Eternity and Eternal life will then appear before us in all their beauty and purity.
My little house of happiness will blend in perfect harmony with the inexhaustible treasures of the eternal world. It will no longer need strong walls to protect us from disaster, for the Lord Himself will personally become its Wall, Foundation, Happiness, and the One Who fills everything. The glory of God will be my constant adornment in the form of an eternal, spotless character shaped under the conditions of warfare and severe trials.
I live! This is not merely a joyful exclamation, but also an understanding that I belong to the One Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. My personal relationship with Jesus gives Him the right to open for me the Heavenly treasuries of God’s love and to impart to me this attribute of the Divine nature. By studying the life of Christ and carefully considering His ministry for my salvation, I unite my heart with Heaven and drink the water of life from the pure, original Source.
As I come to know Jesus, I marvel at His love and realize that I do not possess it. But He offers me agape love as gold which, once it becomes mine, will carry me through the refining fire and teach me to see life and this world with different eyes—eyes anointed with the special salve of God’s enlightenment. Then I will see what I had failed to notice. My new white garment will testify to the world and to Heaven of my true allegiance and my new character, which is like the character of Jesus.
Sadly, many people will appreciate all these blessings only after the door of grace has closed forever and nothing can be changed. Then the Gift of Eternal life will truly appear in all its magnificence. But standing and watching a departing ship, knowing that you are irretrievably late and lost forever, is not a pleasant experience.
Once I traveled by ferry from Germany to Russia. After boarding was complete and the order was given to close the bow of the ship, two cars arrived. Their drivers began pleading with the captain through gestures to open the entrance for them. They waved their arms, fell to their knees, and asked the port workers to support their request to board the vessel. But it was already too late. Perhaps the captain could no longer see them. The bow closed, and we set sail without them. They watched the ship in despair and were deeply saddened. As I looked at them, there was nothing I could do to help.
The Gift of Eternal life is still available. It desires to take its place in my structure, blending with all the other bricks. It cannot be seen with the eye, but it is very strong.
Love embraces this material as well. It joins this understanding of life to all the other qualities of my structure.
People of the world can also be happy by using some eternal materials in their structure of happiness, but all these materials must be connected to one another and to the Foundation, and the roof must securely cover them all.
To live without God is like sailing without a sail. It is vanity and vexation of spirit. But to live forever without God—no worse nightmare could be imagined.
Bible verses for this chapter:
John 1:1–5, 11–13; 3:14–18, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:39–40; 6:47, 63; 10:27–28; 14:6; 17:2–3; Deuteronomy 30:15, 19; Job 33:4; Proverbs 12:28; 18:21; Luke 12:15; Romans 6:22–23; Revelation 3:7; Matthew 25:10–13; 7:22–23