God himself is the gift within all gifts. He means to satisfy us completely in his presence, in his time. Knowing this truth makes all the difference in our experience of partial and temporary pleasures here and now. We don’t have to always be looking over our shoulders, asking ourselves, “Is that all?” Now we can be always looking ahead and thinking, “I can’t wait to see what’s next.” 

God’s Gifts Don’t Last for Now

Have you noticed, since the rise of the smartphone camera, the difference between soaking up a wonderful moment and trying to capture it with the perfect shot? Maybe it’s a mountaintop view, a family gathering, or a sporting event. It’s so easy now to look at whatever we’re seeing through the few square inches of glass and liquid crystal that we’re holding in front of our faces. We want so badly to capture the moment—to make it ours and to make it last. But what do we actually end up with? An image so terribly shrunk down that it’s barely worth looking at, and most of us don’t. Meanwhile, even in the moment, our joy in the experience is shrunk down too, clouded by the quest for the perfect shot and hemmed in by the size of the screen we’re using to frame it. We enjoy the moment more when we just accept that it won’t last, that we can’t possibly fully capture it, and that we may as well soak it up while we can. There’s a powerful metaphor here for life overall.

You can find ancient wisdom from all over the world telling you to prioritize the present over the past or the future. And these days mindfulness is a multibillion-dollar industry. Who doesn’t want to work on living in the moment?

But how do you actually do it? How do you truly savor what’s right in front of you and keep it from being overwhelmed by grief over what you no longer have or longing for what you don’t have yet? You need to know that the best thing about every good thing on earth is the God whose goodness shines through it. There is no good apart from him. And there is no end to the goodness he intends to share of himself with his people.

The impulse to capture and hoard what we love flattens the world like a smartphone camera flattens an ocean backdrop. That impulse is rooted in false assumptions about reality. It assumes that this world is ultimate and its goodness a nonrenewable resource in short supply. It reflects a scarcity mindset. You stock up water in the Arizona desert. You don’t do that in the Mississippi Delta.

With the perspective of heaven, we can see things more clearly. There is no scarcity of goodness in God. When good gifts on earth are seen as they are in themselves, apart from God, they will be defined by all they are not. They don’t fully satisfy.

Read More