Time&Eternity

30 chapter 1
Min framtidsdag är ljus och lång,
den räcker bortom tidens tvång,
där Gud och Lammet säll jag ser
och ingen nöd skall vara mer, 104
and look forward to heaven and see the struggle of earthly life as a time of
testing, the situation had changed significantly for his colleagues nearly a
century later :
Ich steh vor dir mit leeren Händen, Herr; .l.l.
mein Los ist Tod, hast du nicht andern Segen?
Bist du der Gott, der Zukunft mir verheißt?
Ich möchte glauben, komm mir doch entgegen. 105
When the future is no longer taken for granted, one tries to assure oneself
through prayer and to grasp it through faith. In the GL, one finds in the
litanies prayers like: “Be our future” 106 and “for our children be you the future.”
107 Thoughts about the future no longer lead directly to heavenly
peace. The future increasingly becomes the partner of hope:
Gottes Wort ist wie Licht in der Nacht;
es hat Hoffnung und Zukunft gebracht; .l.l. 108
In some passages, future even appears as a synonym for hope. One
speaks of children in slums and in desolation, who are suffering and living
without a future, 109 and of songs of praise that do not cease as long as eyes
shine brightly with hope and faith in the future 110 and as long as children
still dare to hope for a future land. 111
The fear of the unknown future of a young child being baptized 112 refers
not only to eternal salvation, but especially to the dangers and uncertainties
of earthly life. 113 In this situation, the act of baptism becomes the inauguration
of an assurance of the future in the midst of earthly life and beyond life
on earth. 114 The future is grasped through faith and is believed to be permeated
with God’s Spirit. Only in this way can its threats and dangers be endured.
Brian Wren may have had similar thoughts while writing these
words:
Christ is alive! No longer bound
to distant years in Palestine,
he comes to claim the here and now,
and conquer every place and time.
Christ is alive! His Spirit burns
through this and every future age,
till all creation lives and learns
his joy, his justice, love, and praise. 115