By Peggy Still –
When Victor Hugo was more than eighty years old, he expressed his faith this way:
“Within my soul I feel the evidence of my future life. I am like a forest that has been cut down more than once, yet the new growth has more life than ever. I am always rising toward the sky, with the sun shining down on my heard. The earth provides abundant sap for me, but heaven lights my way to worlds unknown. People say the soul is nothing but the effect of our bodily powers at work. If that were true, then why is my soul becoming brighter as my body begins to fail? The closer I come to the end of my journey, the more clearly I hear the immortal symphonies of eternal worlds inviting me to come. It is awe-inspiring yet profoundly simple.”
There is a great difference between the quality of older people who have lived self-indulgent, useless lives and the quality of those who have sailed the rough seas, carrying burdens as servants of God and as helpers of others.
The stress and strain of life seeps into servants of God and is absorbed into the very pores of their character. Evidence of their work remains long after the sun drops below the horizon of their life. The world is illuminated a little more, long after they are gone from our view. When departed from this world, they leave much of themselves behind.
“You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.” (Job 5:26 NLV)
This is a beautiful comparison in Job. After the fruits of righteousness have ripened, and after passing through the spring, summer, fall and winter of life, to hear the call of immortal symphonies, man will not die before his time.
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