Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Eternal (06/06/24)
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TITLE: MS. HOPE ETERNAL | Previous Challenge Entry
By Evelyn Alexander
06/13/24 -
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Hope smiled as she remembered asking her mother the same question, for their unusual last name, Eternal, was in the verse she was now reading, John 3:16. Her wise mother had then taken the opportunity to introduce the meaning of eternity and heaven to her.
It was the first time she had heard that “eternal” meant more than her last name.
She was only a child, but it was a good start to learning how the years we spend in this world is but like a spark that suddenly flashes and then is gone, compared to eternity and all it holds.
As Hope grew older, she began to understand that our time here might be short, when compared to eternity, but it greatly impacts where we will be spending it – with God in His Kingdom and unbelievable wonders – but never sorrows (she especially liked that part). Or, we will be cut off from Him and his love … forever … in a place that still made her heart ache at the thought, for she knew some will end up there.
The excited chatter of the kids pulled her thoughts back to how her mom had first introduced her to the meaning of eternal life and eternity.
Her mom had asked her to run and get a sheet of the beautiful writing paper she kept in her desk for special occasions, along with a brand-new pencil she told her she could keep.
Returning with paper and pencil in hand, her mom had told her to sit at the coffee table and get ready to draw what she told her to. Hope loved to draw, and had slid to the floor in anticipation as she carefully placed the precious paper on the low table, and held the pencil in hand. She was ready. The memory still brought a smile to her face.
Her mom had told her to draw a dot as small as she could, anywhere on the paper. Hope could picture how she must have looked, her tongue at the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on making the best dot she could, for she sensed it was important.
After declaring the dot beautiful, her mom told her what they were going to do next. “Now let’s pretend that dot is you and all the many, many years you’re going to live here … everything you’re going to do and be … along with having your own family with a hubby … and children … everything … until you go to heaven like Grandmama did. Can you imagine that?
Even though she still felt somewhat puzzled, she got the idea and had nodded yes. “That’s good”, her mom declared, then asked her to now pretend the piece of paper with the dot, was really huge! So huge it went to the moon … and past it. It was so big no one has been able to find the end! “Can you see it with your pretend eyes?” her mom had asked excitedly. Catching her mom’s excitement, she nodded yes.
Her mother then reminded her how that little dot represented the many years that she will live here in this world, and that the sheet of paper, which by pretending made it so big it seemed to go on forever … that was what eternal meant: “forever.”
Hope absentmindedly stared down at the special bookmark that now laid on the page she had just been reading. Stroking its fading background and fraying edges, her eyes searched for the pencil-dot that was still there, but had faded over time. She touched it, thinking.
“Everyone …!” she suddenly called out to get the classes attention, while thinking back to when she folded it to make a bookmark, which would always remind her of the importance of preparing and living our lives so we can have eternal life with God.
“… go to the paper cabinet and pull out the prettiest piece of paper you can find, then bring it back to your seat with a brand-new pencil you can keep ….”
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I love the analogy of the dot.
Nicely written.