Last school year I purchased a new laptop computer, and in the process of transferring files from my old Mac, my photos became disorganized and scattered between different places on my hard drive. I’ve been trying to put them in order for the last few months, but today I realized a simple way to import them all into iPhoto, so all I would have to do is compile them into broad categories.

As I sorted through photos, memory after memory came rushing back through my mind: full-time ministry, canvassing, graduating from college, painting the rock.  The photos stretched back over four years. And all I could think was, “where in the world has all of this time gone?”ti

This made me think of a conversation earlier this week where a friend told another friend that the reason we value time is because we were not made for time to run out, but rather for eternity, and yet our reality does not conform to our design (for now). The Bible says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart.” Ecclesiastes 3:11.

I can truly say that God has made so much in my life beautiful in His time, bringing me into friendships that I value more than anything else in this world. And that concept of eternity is definitely in my heart too. As the last grains quickly slip through the hourglass of this summer, I don’t want it to end.  I love being near to my family, and close to my friends. I cannot imagine this coming to an end.

What seems only a distant dream right now will be reality again when I soon return to Virginia to begin my second year of law school. And I’m tempted to be sad, dejected, depressed.

And yet, one of the verses that came up when our theme for ASC at UM was “Remember” (2005-2006) keeps coming back to mind:

“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:18,19

Telling a historian not to remember seems a futile command. But I appreciate what the text says nonetheless. Yes, God has done incredible things in the past, and I am eternally grateful for those evidences of His kindness in my life. But  He is not finished yet.  He can create a new thing, out of apparent impossibility, something that will also be worth looking back over.

Yes, I will cherish my last two weeks in Michigan (just writing that ties my heart up in knots). But I won’t let the memory keep me from looking forward to see what new thing the Lord is brining. The best is yet to come.