“A whole human life is just a heartbeat here in Heaven” (What Dreams May Come).

I saw this quote on a church sign on my way home from Radnor Lake State Park. It really puts things in perspective.

Life here is so very fleeting. You don’t get another chance to go back and do or undo your past. You don’t get to replay certain scenes in your life over like a kind of Choose Your Own Adventure book (does anybody else remember those?)

All the joys and heartaches, triumphs and failures in this life are but a heartbeat in eternity’s perspective. The blink of an eye.

Some days, it’s hard to remember that. The pain and loss seem so neverending. Yet the Apostle Paul said that all this suffering and pain and loss can’t begin to compare with the glory that’s coming. A heartbeat of loss versus a forever of love.

Even now, you and I get glimpses of what’s coming– a kind of celestial sneak preview. Sometimes, there’s inexplicable joy that comes out of nowhere, peace that makes its way into the midst of turmoil.

Wow. My brain hurts trying to wrap my head around eternity. But I do know that truly the best is yet to come.

But what do we do with this life? I’ve always loved this quote from Dead Poets Society:

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?’ Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”