All Good Things Won't Come to an End

On Wednesday afternoon I was listening to a sermon by Phil Ryken on Revelation 21-22, those grand, beloved chapters on the new home God will institute for His people. As Ryken stood over the Bible, he said (and I'm paraphrasing), "You know, we have a saying here that goes, 'All good things must come to an end.' Even when we're doing something wildly joyous, we have this sense that our happiness in it will come to an end. But not so in the New Heavens and Earth."

One day, all good things won't come to an end. Our ineffable delight in something won't be diminished when we stop, because our perfect joy will continue. Every day will be better than the last.

Sometimes I get discouraged here. I think you might too. We struggle under a crushing burden of sin, of bad days and broken hearts and unrealized dreams.

We need the hope of eternal joy.

I remember when I went on a cruise two years ago. I adore cruising - free (incredibly delicious) food, fun programs, lazy sea days, gorgeous ports. But I remember almost every day my mom saying to us, "Take a moment and just stop. You are on a cruise. Enjoy it. Treasure it, because it will be over before you know it."

And so often, I did. I stopped and I treasured every minute. But I treasured it because the thought of its end hung heavy on my mind. And that tempered some of my joy.

Never will our joy be tempered in the New Heavens and Earth. Never will we have to say, "Enjoy it now because it won't last forever." It will! It will last into infinity's ages.

Our life is really like a labored breath in a glorious existence. We are a whoosh of troubled air now, but in light of eternity, our hardships won't even compare to the joy that awaits us.

One day, all good things will not come to an end. I long for that day.