Summer 2004
Eternal Purposes
Wade E Taylor

John Follette tells a story about two men that received a free ticket to a museum. One man went around rejoicing and was all excited about his ticket. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Glory! I’ve got a ticked! I am going to get in and I have the assurance! He spent his whole life just rejoicing over the “fact” that he had a ticket.

The other man gathered books and information and began to study and ask questions. What is in there? What am I going to see? He began to learn about all the different things that were there in order to gain an understanding of them.

The day came that each of them were lifted from life into the museum. The one man went in rejoicing and happy with his ticket. He presented his ticket and entered in. Once inside, he noticed an object and asks, “What is that?” It was a “mystery” to him as to what he was seeing.

The other man said, “Oh!” He radiated with all kinds of information and understanding about the object. He knew what he was looking at and understood what he was seeing. He could relate to it. He had become, in a sense, a part of the object. He had spent time in “preparation” for this trip to the museum.

When there is a searching and a preparation, something happens to us. There is an enlargement in our life. There are times when we struggle with present problems, and in a sense, with things that we feel “should” happen - for fulfillments that are yet elusive and have not come to fruition.

There are things that we patiently wait for that the Lord “seems” to delay that He uses to further stretch us or bring us out to enlarge the capacity of our being. He is more interested in that than if we just get the quick answer.

If I say, “Lord I need this or that,” and He said, “Okay, here it is,” then I am quickly on my way. But if I wait, then there is a searching and a preparation that is happening within me. There is an enlargement in my life, an understanding can come that I did not have before

When we put more value on eternal things, when we look at earthly or temporal things in the light of eternity, the Lord will use these circumstances and situations that we face, as part of the further preparation of our life for an eternal purpose.