Never forget the bigger picture

LAST week I had the very great privilege and pleasure of attending the 100th birthday party of a dear friend, J, the astonishingly robust widow of an equally robust farmer who died at the age of 99 a few years back.

It was a wonderful occasion with what seemed like half the population of Hambleden calling in to congratulate her, with speeches, hugs and a most impressive cake.

The weather was just perfect! And how marvellous for her to see so many friends, young and old, and to be able to look back over a long, long life lived amid such friendship and amid the beauty of the Hambleden Valley.

But this is about more than my social life! What occurred to me as we sat there, sharing memories aloud and thinking maybe much more, is that the view from 100 years, or even 90, 80, 70 years is not just what can be seen in the rear-view mirror.

For a Christian like me, and for all those friends we have loved and, for a time, lost there is not just a view behind, a view of the past, there is more to life even at 100 than wistful retrospective.

There is the outlook of a future, with God in Jesus. We always have something to which we can look forward. All the world’s great religions have a perspective on this, but the Christian hope is summarised in the very last chapter of the Bible.

Revelation 22:1 — Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2 — Through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3 — No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

4 — They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

5 — And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.

Nothing accursed, nations healed, the earth itself healed and made new, no night nor the works of darkness, for dwellers by the Thames the prospect of a clean river might have an appeal and, above all, seeing at last the face of God, and the whole life of the new Jerusalem.

That is the prospect to keep in view. And it’s ahead of you whatever your age. Bear that in mind when you get your telegram from the King!