Between Here and Eternity

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Somewhere between here and eternity. That's life on earth. Life in this realm. A life worth living, until the next chapter...the final chapter...with the longest running repeat performance.

It's California weather today-in Louisiana. I'll take it. Cool and breezy, sunny and warm...no humidity...no mosquitoes...the best of both worlds for as long as mother nature decides--to be kind.

I drove four hours yesterday through the marshland, lush greenery and rolling hills of Louisiana and Mississippi...and I couldn't help but feel the transcendent quality of the gift that is our earth.

It is like paradise...the peaceful feeling that wraps around you when the world outside is at its best. I absorbed the gentle warmth of nature's delicate embrace with an understanding of the intrinsic value that is this gift- from God.

So much of our lives is wasted on wanting, wooing and wheeling and dealing. Slowing the pace, putting ourselves out there-in the midst of the real world -all around us-God's world...is sobering...Silently, serenely-sobering.


There is a gentle, pulsating energy flowing outward from every aspect of nature...every blade of grass, every flower petal, every leaf that clings to the vine...an energy that fuses the living with the divine. We just have to be silent long enough to see it...to feel it...to understand it.

I'll never forget watching my son play baseball at our nearby playground...Tall robust trees surrounded the ball field-as if forming a circle around the children...their branches, gently swayed back and forth in the soft breeze...It suddenly dawned on me- I wasn't the only one having fun...the trees were enjoying the ball game...they were responding to the energy and the laughter of the young boys...they were dancing to the rhythm of the sounds It was an awesome- sobering feeling. A surprising revelation!

Every day we are given glimpses of heaven's afterglow...the signs and wonders...of the eternity- just beyond the veil -that separates this world- from the next...Sometimes, just pausing-putting ourselves at rest-puts things in perspective...Helps us see the simple, yet striking beauty that is our world now--and throughout eternity.

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