The Bridge to Eternity

“The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.” John 10:18

I remember when I was a teenager Mother and Daddy took us somewhere in the mountains where a swinging bridge stretched across a cavern.  I can remember feeling anxious while crossing over to the other side, but I kept looking straight ahead out of fear.  Slowly I inched my way and took caution steps while my hands were firmly grasped around the ropes to my left and right.  Intellectually, I knew that if this bridge wasn’t safe, we would not be allowed to cross over on it, but it was still scary.  It seemed to be the only way to get to the other side.

In John 10:18, Jesus stated that God’s intense love for Him was bolstered when He laid His life down by choice.  Through that choice we are the recipients of God’s great love and acceptance into the family.  Because Jesus laid down His rights, entitlements and will for His own life, a Bridge was stretched across the impassable caverns to Heaven.  As believers the Bridge is the only way to get to the other side where our loved ones have already settled into eternity.  We walk that Bridge on some days with anxiety and other days with confidence.  We keep our eyes focused not on what we do, but on what Christ did so we can walk that journey in hope and faith.  Sometimes we walk shoulder to shoulder with other believers while crossing, but many times the walk is lonely, and the view is scary.  It is those times, when we must remind ourselves that the Bridge beneath our feet is safe and secure.  We must make a choice that we will go the way that Christ went before us…God’s will…God’s way…God’s when.

With our feet planted securely in the Word, and our white-knuckled grasps around God’s promises we will move across the only Bridge that was constructed just for our arrival.  It is the Bridge to eternity!