Daily Encouragement: Day 226
From Handbook to Wisdom, Day 226
THE MUSIC WILL NEVER END
I desire that the God of peace Himself will sanctify me completely,
and that my whole spirit, soul, and body
will be preserved blameless at the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls me is faithful, who also will do it.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)
By God’s grace I want to live to the end in faith,
knowing that I will not receive the promises on earth,
but seeing them and welcoming them from a distance,
I confess that I am a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth.
Instead, I long for a better country, a heavenly one.
In this way, God will not be ashamed to be called my God,
for He has prepared a city for me.
Like Moses, I esteem reproach for the sake of Christ
as of greater value than the treasures of this world,
because I am looking to the reward.
(Hebrews 11:13, 16, 26)
In her poem “Reflection,” Evangeline Paterson wrote:
“I used to think—Loving life so greatly—
That to die would be
Like leaving a party
Before the end.
“Now I know that the party
Is really happening
Somewhere else …
“And I know too
That when I get there
The music will never
End.”
The saying that “all good things must come to an end” may be true on this earth, but it will not be true of heaven. The sadness of sickness, aging, and death will be swallowed up by our boundless resurrected life in the presence of our Lord and of His people. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:57–58).