Prodigal:  I wonder how long this took to make?

Me:  I don’t know.

Prodigal:  Man can do a lot but God can do more.

Me:  Amen!

This is from the book God Will Make A Way:  Stories of Hope

What happened to Alexander the Great’s “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”?  A few pieces of the tomb of Mausolus, built in 350 B.C., can be found in the British Museum in London.  The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was destroyed in A.D. 262 by the Goths.  The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have long since disappeared.  The ruins of Babylon have been excavated in the twentieth century, but the splendor associated with the city is no more.

The magnificent statue of Zeus that once stood above the city of Olympus was dragged off and burned during the Byzantine era.  King Ptolemy’s famous lighthouse near Alexandria, Egypt, crumpled during a fourteenth-century earth quake.  The Colossus of Rhodes met the same fate in 224 B.C. when it toppled into the sea.  Only the pyramids of Egypt have survived the ravages of time.

What man makes does not last forever.  Last year’s automobile styles are soon out-of-date, as are last year’s fashions.  Best-sellers and movie hits come and go year after year.  Products break, things become obsolete, companies merge, taste change.

When we look at the work we do, we could easily become discouraged, thinking that what we produce with our hands and minds will not last and is therefore of little benefit.  That is far from the case when we are in God’s will.  While the things we produce, write, create, or manufacture are perishable, the work we do for the Lord always produces eternal results.

None of us are capable of seeing the full benefit of what we do.  We cannot see the changes taking place in our own souls or the far-reaching impact our actions have on others.  But we can resolve to live and work as a continual opportunity to glorify Him in this earth.

We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

Ephesians 1:7

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org