Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: A Moment in Time and in Eternity

As my wife Sara and I were praying at our B&B on the last full day of our 40^th anniversary New England vacation, I began crying. She wondered why. I wondered myself.

Perhaps I felt small grief at the end of a special trip. Perhaps I was moved by questioning how many more such trips were in our future as our ages increase and capabilities decrease. Perhaps I was feeling the mix of stress and energy at resuming normal duties and lifestyle.

Maybe I just wanted to take a piece of this trip back with me, other than a favorite restaurant’s t-shirt or some new attraction pins I had chosen for my collection.

Minutes later, we were driving down the twisting slope back into a nearby town. I asked Sara, “Is that a stream running alongside the road?” She confirmed so, and I said, “I wish there was some place we could stop and take a picture of it.”

Not thirty seconds later, we rounded a corner and came upon a turnout where the school bus changed direction each day (Thanks, God, for the thought right before the opportunity.). I pulled over and climbed down an embankment to snap some photos like the one you see with this post.

Somehow, I felt better knowing that this little Vermont stream exists and persists and changes its appearance but not its character with each season. I marveled again at God’s creative subtlety in majestic implementation. I can’t stop time anymore than I can stop the stream, so I reveled in occupying its space for a moment.

In our faith journeys, we sense the overwhelming world in which we live. Whether it is nature or fellow humans or political issues or tragedies or temptations or the vast array of things that just happen in life, it all can seem too much. Even God seems too big for us. It’s good to know that God also loves the tiny, the temporary, the insignificant, magnifying and uplifting each moment. May we faithfully walk with God each day, immersed in the present and connected to the eternal.

This notion of connecting the present and the eternal comes from my book, "Live Like You're Loved." Learn more about it, and my other books, at CecilTaylorMinistries. com/lessons.