Childhood flies by … we look back … and the sweet days of our youth become just a fading memory disappearing in the mist of the decades.
Where did it go?
“We didn’t realize we were making memories. We just thought we were having fun.” – Winnie the Pooh
Where have the days of piano lessons … best friends … Sunday School … homework assignments … and hopscotch gone?
The years of childhood and all the magical season holds are like dandelion seeds scattered in the wind.
The treasured moments of opening birthday gifts … collecting valuable stamps … and playing dress-up are no more.
Oh! How I loved long afternoons of amusement with Barbie dolls … and endless games of Monopoly with my little brother … and sifting through the crayons to find just the right color for some sweet creation!
The toys of yesterday seem so insignificant today, don’t they?
And yet, when we were children, our toys were priceless … our world revolved around the plastic pieces promoted on TV and purchased at the corner dime store.
A miniature metal car was a possession of great value … a paper doll was appreciated and held dear … a bouncing ball was prized … and a piece of pretend jewelry turned a little girl into a queen.
But now, we have grown up. We are no longer children.
We no longer own the Barbie dolls that fell apart … the puzzles that have lost their pieces … and the broken toys that defined our formative years.
We now stunningly realize that our Monopoly money was all pretend and would never buy anything of lasting value. It was worthless in the economy that actually matters.
Barbie Dolls were caricatures of some idealized version of womanhood … cars that fit into a matchbox would never win an important race … and our crayons are all broken.
Baby dolls would never love us in return and every baseball championship that was won in the backyard is in no one’s history book.
Those things – play toys, actually – that were of supreme importance yesterday hold no sway on all that is genuine, lasting, and significant today.
“Men deal with life as children with their play, who first misuse, then cast their toys away.” – William Cowper
There will come a day when our reality changes once again … when we transfer not from childhood to adulthood but from time into eternity.
From humanity into heaven’s splendor
From temporary into everlasting.
From flesh and blood into spirit.
When we look back at this life from heaven’s perspective … I wonder if we will look at all this current life offers as an adult views childish toys.
I wonder … if life on earth will seem like dandelion dust.
I wonder … if everything that we valued on earth will grow strangely dim.
I wonder … if everything that seems so important now will quickly fade in the light of eternity.
I wonder … if those things that consume us in this oxygen-saturated existence will seem as if they held no life at all.
I wonder … if those things that we value as humans will dissipate in the glory of eternity.
I wonder.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” – J. R. R. Tolkein
This is what I do know …
Gold … the most valuable commodity known to mankind, is used as mere pavement material in heaven.
Pearls … one of the most costly jewels of earthly appraisal, are only used as mortar and steel in heaven.
Time … that commodity for which we all year for more of, doesn’t even exist in heaven!
So … the question remains … what IS valuable in heaven?
What is rare … and precious … and prized in the economy of eternity?
In heaven … prayers are collected in golden bowls and exclaimed over by all of the saints of the ages past.
“And when the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures saw the Lamb had taken the scroll, they fell facedown at the feet of the Lamb and worshiped him. Each of them had a harp and golden bowls brimming full of sweet fragrant incense—which are the prayers of God’s holy lovers.” – Revelation 5:8
In heaven… our tears – all of those things that have disappointed us and even broken our hearts – are held in the receptacles of God … and they are recorded in God’s history book.
“You’ve kept track of all my wandering and my weeping. You’ve stored my many tears in your bottle—not one will be lost. For they are all recorded in your book of remembrance.” – Psalm 56:8
In heaven … when a soul is saved all of the angels cheer and sing!
“That’s the way God responds every time one lost sinner repents and turns to him. He says to all his angels, ‘Let’s have a joyous celebration, for the one who was lost, I have found!’ ” – Luke 15:10
In heaven … the blood of the martyrs is the stuff of which a victory is made.
“When the Lamb broke open the fifth seal, I saw gathered under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because they had the testimony of the Lamb.” – Revelation 6:9
Prayers … tears … salvation … giving one’s life to the unshakable Kingdom of God ~ these are the currency that is of great profit in eternity.
Spend your life on these things, my friend!
Spend your life on all that heaven applauds and honors … you will never regret it!
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Carol McLeod Ministries
Featured Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay
