Your nice, peaceful, organized home, suddenly appears as if a tornado has touched down and piled everything into a heap! If it weren't for the sound of the familiar laughter coming from somewhere in the clutter, you'd swear you had been robbed, or vandalized or visited by demons.
Kids can have great fun in tents like that. Adults too. Too bad those fun, living room forts are temporary. Good times like those we had as kids should be captured in a bottle and saved and opened up when we are older and more cynical. But those good times proved to be temporary, just like WE are. Where did all the good times go? For that matter, where did our YOUTH go? Gone forever? Well . . .
"16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
And here's a verse for all you living room tent builders out there.
"For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." - 2 Corinthians 1:5
Just like those living room tents we used to make, our human tents, these bodies we wear, are temporary as well. So why do we spend to much time thinking about and caring about temporary things? We spend incredible amounts of our time living in, and thinking about, the visible world. So much so that we often forget to prepare for the invisible one.
Building living room forts was a lot of fun when we were younger. We weren't really thinking about earthly things. We weren't thinking about eternal things either but think about this.
What if we pursued Jesus like we built that fort? What if we built our faith with the same focus and energy that we built that living room fort with?
As kids we were totally focused on the task at hand. We used every resource we could think of to build our tent. Yet today, as adults, our faith takes a back seat compared to everything else. Our focus lies elsewhere. Hey, I can't even make it through my morning prayers without wandering off someplace else. Squirrel!
As we watch our children or our grandchildren at play, notice how focused and intense they are. Whether it's a child's tea party or building a temporary tent, they are extremely focused on what they are doing. So should we be with our faith. Let us pursue Jesus . . . focus on Jesus . . . because this world IS a temporary thing. Through our faith in Christ we just BEGIN to experience the eternal. Let us come to Him like a little child who wants to be picked up and held. He has promised us a great reward. Let's not blow it by placing so much importance on temporary things. Things that simply do not matter. Let us focus on Jesus!At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." - Matthew 18: 1-6
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