This past week I had to fly to South Florida to care for my mom after major surgery. As I attended to her needs each day, I had flashbacks to how many times as a child she did the same thing for me. I guess things in life really do come full circle.
As I sat next to her bed as she slept, I was reminded of many childhood memories. Inevitably, I remembered a particular Christmas that seemed to torment me in how slow it was in arriving.
I vividly recalled coming in each day and asking her “how many more days until Christmas?” Probably to save her sanity from answering that question over and over, she gave me a crayon and the calendar. She circled on the calendar December 25th and then showed me the current date. She had me put an “X” through that day and instructed me to do the same each day. I could then count the remaining days myself and not have to ask her what must have sounded like a broken record (if you don’t know what a record is, just ignore that statement).
I remember after several days of counting the days getting a little frustrated and loudly exclaimed “Christmas is taking forever to get here!” It’s amazing how clear that memory still is in my mind after all these years.
‘Forever’—that’s a long time to anyone. To a 7 year old child, a week can be ‘forever’. To a couple in love, forever might be a few years or a lifetime. To a person experiencing a tragedy, a day can seem like eternity.
But in world politics, it would seem that ‘forever’ doesn’t mean the same to everyone. I’m referring to the statement this past week by Secretary of State Clinton concerning the building of Israeli settlements.
Earlier in the week, Secretary Clinton stood with Israeli PM Netanyahu and praised his offer to limit settlement construction without halting it. A few days later standing with the Arab leadership in Egypt, she declared, “Washington does not accept the legitimacy of the West Bank enclaves and wants to see their construction halted ‘forever.'"
The problem with the desire of the U.S. administration is that it is in conflict with God; who He is and what He is doing. And when it comes to God and His promises, the term “forever” denotes continuity (without a break) of action, being or state of being. In other words, when God makes a promise, it means as long as God exists, so does the promise.
When God made a covenant with Abraham that wherever he put his feet, the land would be his and his descendants “forever”, that pledge has not expired or ceased being—no matter what Washington wants. And anyone that thinks otherwise, better think again!
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