Reflected Reality

"And the world is passing away, and the lust of it;

but he who does the will of God abides forever" 1 John 2:17

Here's the view from a window at our timeshare in New Bern, North Carolina, where we stayed a couple years ago. As I gaze across the lake's surface, it's still smoothness is much like a mirror, reflecting every tree, building and blade of grass. Slight movements of wind cause the reflected scene to pulse with life. It has a surreal appearance -- sort of like a second reality that mirrors the first. You almost wonder -- what is real and what is the reflection?

In some ways, the impermanence of the world we live in is like the reflected scene captured in the water's surface. It looks so real yet, it's not substantial or lasting, it's easily marred and not something to be counted on to last. The real scene above the reflection is solid, lasting, something to be counted on -- like heaven.

This then is a "picture" of heaven and earth. While we are living in this world and consider it to be so solid and real, it's merely a reflection of the greater reality which awaits us in heaven. While the world as we know it is easily marred and not something to be counted on to last, Heaven is solid and real and eternal.

One of the really strange things with the picture I've described is that the world-system would have us believe the very opposite of the reality I've just stated. The world-system, i.e. Satan and his cohorts, would have us believe that Heaven is the ethereal, non-substantial place and that the world is the solid, earth under your feet reality to be counted upon.

You may be sure that Satan wants you to live in the Reflection. He wants your hopes and dreams and all your work to be poured into something that is as impermanent as a reflection on the water's surface.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" 1 John 2:15