I find it interesting to be in the last quarter of my life…at least if you divide a lifetime by 20 year increments. As I approach my 63rd birthday, I sometimes catch myself in my dreaming. I want to partner with God in so many ways bringing his beautiful Kingdom to hearts that don’t know him yet. I’d like to live in Ireland for at least three months – maybe years. Currently, I’d like to travel to about 15 other countries some of which to stay in for many months.

And…I want to be home and go to every single dance performance, soccer game, school show and whatever else my grandchildren are involved in. I want to have tea parties and pool days and play dates. I want to host worship gatherings in my home. I want my garden to finally flourish with constant care. I want to pour into the people God has placed in my life particularly my children and grandchildren but so many others too.

Well then, I can’t be traveling as much as I’d like. There are some experiences I want to have, places I want to go, people I’d like to meet in person that I simply won’t be able to. Choices need to be made. They always do.

In what I see as shrinking parameters around my life, around my time, I know a God for whom nothing is impossible and whose dreams for me extend way beyond my limited imagination. I can’t wait to see what he has in mind in this quarter!

I also know that this life – glorious and messy and breathtaking and holy and heartbreaking and honing – is not the end of the Story. Real life, true life, glorious LIFE will begin once I cross through the doorway that we all will one day walk through though we have no idea when. And then….the places I will go, the adventures I will have, the people I will share with and know in ways I only long for now, the God I will have intimate face to face communion with ALWAYS, well…let’s just say, it’s enough to make limitations on this life pale. And everything else that’s difficult in this life…pale.

It's coming. Oh the joys I will experience, the garden I will create, the experiences I will get to share, the depths to which I will know and be known without shame, the exquisite bliss that awaits of being in the Presence of our glorious King worshipping with all in unbridled, immeasurable, endless awe.

I can’t wait. But I will wait. And press in with every day I have left to draw closer to our God’s magnificent heart.

Yes, as I get older, there are increasing limits to my time and my capabilities, but friends, I will miss nothing.

I don’t know what you’d like to do. It might be to move without pain. It might be to hold the one who left too soon once again in your arms. It might be to have someone to hold at all. Maybe it’s to travel. Maybe it’s to not hurt so much, to struggle so much or to not be so lonely. Maybe it’s to share the Gospel with as many people as you possibly can. Perhaps it’s to experience God in ways you’ve only heard of.

Whatever it is, dear ones, it’s coming. In the end that really is not an end at all but a grand beginning, you will miss nothing.