Perspective is everything. A ten year old’s perspective is limited. His world is his family, and maybe his grade school. Life seems very long. Old age is another world. He can’t even imagine it. A three month summer vacation is an eternity. Time moves slowly when one is waiting, and he is waiting for all the good things to come.
By age thirty his perspective has expanded. Now it includes career and family. He sees how crucial youthful decisions moulded him. Time is moving faster. How quickly he went from twenty to thirty. His children are pre-schoolers. Their adult years still seem far off in the distance, and life still seems long.
Age fifty five is a different story. The children are raised. The career is almost over. The decades have leaped forward in ever-quicening bounds. His parents are in the advanced stages of old age. His children are adults. How quickly it happend. He has grandchildren. His perspective on life is vastly different. What stressed a ten or thirty year old don’t stress him. He sees life’s details in light of the big picture previously concealed.
If perspective constantly changes with time, how will it differ after death? How will we see what seems so important today? Will it still matter? Or, will it now appear trivial? Blessed are those who see from an eternal perspective . That was how Paul saw things. “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-10).