A Year of Eternity

For Wilshire Baptist Church

It was cloudy, chilly and damp; it was sunny, warm and dry. We heard laughter and fond greetings; we saw tears and consoling hugs. There was sadness for lives lost and broken; gratitude for the binding of community. There were words of civic pride and hymns of reverent comfort.

Such was the range of sights, sounds and emotions on the shore of Lake Ray Hubbard as citizens of Garland marked the night of December 26, 2015, when an EF4 tornado dropped down out of the sky. Nine people were killed on Interstate 30, thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, and untold numbers of lives were shattered.

It’s hard to believe a year has passed. For most of us, the year has gone by as most years do – breathlessly fast – but for those whose lives were overturned it may have been painfully slow. The year has brought relief in the form of homes repaired or rebuilt, businesses refurbished and reopened. But those who lost loved ones will never see restoration; their lives are forever changed and the passing days may bring comfort but life will never be as it was.

The remembrance event at the lake was a snapshot of what we all experience – if not in a year’s time then over a lifetime. There will be cold rain and warm sunshine, laughter and tears, sadness and gratitude. In fact, as we listened and watched I recalled Ecclesiastes 3, which begins with the familiar words, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” What follows is a long list that I’ve heard read in Sunday morning sermons and at weddings and funerals. It begins with “a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,” and ends with “a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”

And then follows these words that I don’t recall reading before: “What do workers gain from their toil. I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Translations vary but it’s a remarkable juxtaposition of ideas. A quick-read interpretation might be: Our burdens are God-given and are ultimately beautiful when looked at through the prism of eternity. I don’t know if that was the writer’s intended message, but I find myself holding tightly to the idea that God has a plan – it’s called eternity – and there’s no way to understand it.

Likewise, I’ve grown into the idea that we are already living in eternity and that events such as what happened a year ago in our community are markers on a continuum with no beginning or end. That is how I have been able to endure my own losses and appreciate the joy and rebirth that has followed.

That may be little comfort now for those who lost so much a year ago. To them the past year may have felt like an eternity without relief. But just as the clouds gave way to sunshine on the day of remembrance, there is hope that God will make all things beautiful in time.