Beauty Beyond Borders

UV 2290/10000 Beauty Beyond Borders
And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
Acts 3 v 10

Many of us act like the blind beggar at the Beautiful Gate. God has placed some beautiful blessings right before us and we remain blind and unaware. We are still begging for alms when the Lord has given us sight as well as insight. The congenital blindness of mankind has afflicted us. Instead, we should always have the spirit of the blind man after he was healed for we have been touched, talked to and transformed by the Lord. We should be walking, leaping and praising the Lord all the time. Instead, we are grovelling and grumbling. The Lord has already brought us to a place of great abundance of salvation. We should be thankful for all He has done already instead of complaining of what we do not have.

The Lord has brought us to the beautiful gate of Heaven through the transport of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We are always only a prayer away from the throne of the Lord. Our eyes were blinded by our earthly concerns and worries. We need to see the beautiful face of Jesus, sense His beautiful presence in our lives, smell His eternal fragrance. He has done many wonders and shown us amazing things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard nor mind conceived. For many of us He has delivered us from the jaws of death of the roaring lion and brought us to the entrance of eternity and paradise. No more can we ask or expect small requests of the Lord.

The pearly gate of Heaven is beautiful but a pearl is wrought in great pain. We are able to recognize the beauty of eternal life often only after we are brought through much pain. Sometimes, it is so painful that we are blinded and cannot see any beauty in life. But, as the Balm of Gilead of Heaven- Jesus relieves, heals and removes our pain, we begin to see the beauty of the manifold patterns of life and of eternity. Death itself is no longer a hideous entrance to an unknown future but the beautiful gate that will give us access to the promised and eternal land. While we wait to cross the Beautiful Gate, we should rejoice again and again at the wonders and miracles, the grace and peace we enjoy in our walk with Jesus on earth. We are always waiting our turn at the Beautiful Gate of the Eternal City, peering in, getting a glimpse of the goings on. People will see us and know that our sense of joy comes not from something earthly but from an experience as well as an expectation of the beautiful world that lies beyond the Beautiful Gate- the beauty beyond the borders of this life. That vision of eternity should inform and influence everything we think, speak and do.

Prateep V Philip