Wednesday: The Eternal Finding
WEEK 6
WEDNESDAY
THE ETERNAL FINDING
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
In our last day of considering the mastery of the eternal quest by the eternal finding, we note that while the finding is once and for all, yet it is an eternal finding.
In Acts, the people impress us as people without strained longings and dissatisfied yearnings but as people who had found what they were looking for. They were satisfied to the very roots of their being. They knew they knew and were sure they were sure. Their question marks had turned into exclamation points. Their religion was not an everlasting reaching out but a present realization within. God was the most real fact of their lives. If they should reach out to touch God, they would reach too far; God was within—gloriously so.
But while the eternal quest had been mastered by a finding, yet it was an eternal finding. They had found, but they knew that it was only the beginning of finding. They had found but knew there was more to be found. They had arrived only to start on an endless journey every moment of which was a new arriving. Every realization of God set them on fire to realize more—and then more. They were not dissatisfied but forever unsatisfied. Realization and reach were the alternate beats of their hearts.
And this will continue forever. I am persuaded that we begin the next life where we leave off this one, and there will be an eternal growth in the divine image, the finite forever approaching the infinite in character and life, but never becoming the infinite. In that growth in the divine image will be our eternal happiness. We are happy only as we fulfill the laws of our being, and those laws demand growth and creation for their fulfillment. To sit down forever and rest might fit the life of a man of a tropical country who said, “God is good. He made the nights to sleep in and the days to rest in.” But it wouldn’t be the heaven of an alive man. To be alive is to be alive to creation and development. God, the eternal Creator within us, would make us eternally creative.
We find, but we find that there is more to be found. Every experience becomes an exploration—for more.
O Lord, we thank you that we need not be afflicted forever with a spiritual itch that can’t be alleviated. We find and are found in Jesus. Then comes the eternal “more.” Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I have found, but the finding sets me on fire to find more, so more is my cry.