Eternal Life

The most familiar verse in the Bible is John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life 

Many people have read that to say - believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. As if this Christian business is about what happens after death. 

 This morning one of the scriptures in the devotional was John 17: :3  " And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

This verse is so helpful because it  shows that eternal life is really about life in the present - KNOWING God and ( through?) Jesus. Eternal life is living in gratitude and awareness of the blessings flowing through our lives.  Eternal life is also living in expectation of the guidance that comes as we "incline our ears" to hear God's voice or experience divine nudges. 

It is noon now as I write this and I have had already a day full of blessings.  I woke up a little worried because I had an electrician coming this afternoon at a time that might bump into my Friday pickleball.  How would I manage this?  And I had a new air conditioner installed in the morning and spiritual direction planned and a meeting with someone from the church.  How would this work?

And now all of it has happened and I felt like I was "in the flow."  The electrician called and came early, the air conditioner guys have come and gone, the spiritual direction happened a little late but it all worked out as well as the church meeting.  AND it turns out I am now available to take my granddaughter Addie to work later today so Audrey can get a full day's sleep. 

I have found that I experience "eternal life" when I engage in three spiritual practices

1. Reflection - looking back on a morning, a day, a week and seeing how pieces fit together, beauty and love emerged, healing happened.  Seeing God in the ordinary moments of my life.

2. Gratitude - knowing that God continues to bless me.  Blessings come in so many forms - emails and texts from friends, loving words, "God incidences, periods of unexpected refreshment, signs of beauty.

3. Guidance - those twinges or insights or nudges that encourage me to call someone, go somewhere, read something, see something, do something.  

This is the eternal life that I desire - trusting God's presence and loving care in the small things as well as the big ones.  I just have to trust, wait, look, pray, listen, and act as guided..  (None of these are easy and all are open to interpretation!) I am arrogant if I think I can "know" God.  But I do believe that this journey and these practices help me to trust a little more that- in the words of Julian of Norwich

'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

May it be so.