great buildings

Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings?

Not one stone will be left here upon another

all will be thrown down.”

Jesus is most likely giving them a heads-up about what is going to take place around 70 A.D when Rome attacks and completely levels Jerusalem. But my thoughts take me to a different place…the here and now.

The words Jesus says makes me consider the temporary and the eternal. The things that matter and the things that don’t.

When I consider all the time and energy I put into the temporary things and pursuits of this earth, I must keep in mind that Jesus said that these things will not last.

Things of earth give us a degree of value and enjoyment for sure…but all in all they are a flash in the pan; here for the moment, gone for the next.

The things that matter; the eternal things…won’t go away…ever. They are indeed worthwhile to give my time and energy towards.

Yet, more and more, I find myself pulled into temporary things that the world shoves in my face. The world tells me:

Do this, do that.

You need this.

You must have that.

You must achieve this.

If you don’t have this, then you are nothing.

Yet these are the untruths of the world.

When I set my sights on these worldly things, I become a wanderer. I spend time in lost places…places where there is no life…at least not the life I am created to have.

And when I come to my senses and realize that I have become deeply amazed and impressed by these great buildings—these temporary things, Jesus whispers in my ear, “Don’t get too impressed with these things…the stuff of earth. It’s going to be thrown down in a heap of rubble and forgotten.”

“Don’t work for the food that spoils,

but instead work for the food that lasts into eternity.”–Jesus