Sometimes we're superstitious about death. If we think about Heaven too much, we're afraid God will beam us up with immediacy.

As I prayed about a Word of the Year (read about past ones here), however, I passed by the runner-ups of faithfulness and wisdom. God's been placing this word on my mind:

Eternity

We are studying Genesis on Wednesdays with our college-age group at church. Our pastor is slowly going through God's spoken-into-existence creative wonders of light, earth, sea, heavens, plants, animals, and mankind - all of which God called "good" and "very good."

On Sundays, we're closing in on the very end of the Bible studying Revelation, as we look ahead to the new Heaven and the new Earth. God will finally dwell with His people in a radiant city made of luminous glass-like gold, walls adorned with blazing colored jewels we can scarcely imagine.

While the sun and moon's creation were written in Genesis, in Revelation we learn "the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb." (Rev. 21:23)

The 12 "pearly gates," each made of a giant single pearl, will never be closed, only entered into by those written in the Lamb's book of life (Rev. 21:27). Nothing unsafe, unclean, or untrue will enter. Twice, Revelation tells us there will be no night and no tears in our new forever Home. What a promise!

Eternity calls to me, not because I'm preoccupied with death, but because it impacts how I ought to live every day.

I should live with eternal perspective to love well, to act and speak with urgent truthfulness, grace, and patience. Eternity should remind me not let little inconveniences lead me to sin or allow big trials to drive me to despair. The promise of an ever-after with Christ can help me accept His grace-filled rocky path with trust because the ending is already written.

Though eternity still holds wonder and mystery, it's always been a reality to me. When I was only five years old, my dad was suddenly gone into eternity with the God he loved and served.

A lasting dwelling with God was comforting, not fearful, to that little girl - and even more so now for grown-up me, who battles to live with joy in a fragile frame. I identify with this quote:

Frankly...living is hard. But the promise of eternity with Jesus lends hope, courage, and endurance for another day.

There, we won't only find rescue from a pain-filled world of trouble (John 16:33), but we'll be united with our Father and Savior, unbound and unburdened to worship and live as He intended. As we focus on the hereafter in 2026, let's pray our lives are impacted and impactful for the here-and-now.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Colossians 3:2