I have had this picture for several years now, but never used it before. I am not exactly sure WHY I have never used it, but the fact remains it has just remained with all the other pictures; just waiting to be used. There is just something about the texture; it seems incredibly soft to me. I can almost feel the softness of the grass near that irrigation ditch. And yet, I know that this picture is not reality. Life isn’t soft, but rather it can be quite hard; and for a genuine Christian very hard.
Paul writes to his young student Timothy the following….
2 Timothy 3 ( World English Bible )
10 But you did follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,
11 persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. Out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.
Following Jesus is not easy; the world will hate you for using God’s standards of living. Being different has a price and the world will make you pay and pay and pay. But, through any and all difficulties, God will be there for you, helping and guiding you. Eventually, you will die; that is the harsh reality of life. Yet, with God, you will live again and not just exist, but live an abundant life in heaven.
Humm, I wonder what the TEXTURE OF HEAVEN will be like? My best guess is that it will be beyond the softest environment that the human mind can conceptualize.
