Bubbles

Do you remember when you were a child and enjoyed blowing bubbles? Maybe you still get excited when you discover an old can of bubbles in your garage or get a chance to blow them at a birthday party. Every child is entertained by the simple pleasure of blowing soap out of a bottle to make a bunch of small sticky bubbles that disappear once they touch the ground. Perhaps you used to make a game out of catching each little circle as the wind attempted to carry them away.

If you think about it now, once you are older and too "mature" for useless games as catching bubbles, each bubble is temporary and will never stay for longer than a minute. Once you succeed in catching one, you move onto another until they all disappear. This is true in life as well. Each homework assignment, game of monopoly, orchestra concert, or outing with friends is all temporary. Nothing will ever fully satisfy you. As you keep on searching for that one thing that will make you "happy," you will never find it. It's always, "I can't wait until" or "if I had that, life would be perfect."

No matter how much money, fame, or stuff you acquire in your life, it will all end up like a castle in the sand, washed away and empty. Everyone has a "hole" inside them. Nothing can fill up that hole, that emptiness, except for Jesus Christ and the joy He brings. Deuteronomy 8:3 (also written in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4, this must be important if it is mentioned in the Bible three times!) says "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." They say that money cannot buy happiness. To take this saying further, nothing (absolutely nothing!) in the entire universe can satisfy you except for the Creator of it all, God, and His word, the Bible. This is hard to keep in mind when the world and our society throws at us all sorts of lies and deceptions that claim the exact opposite.

We always look forward to something. Whether it be the weekend or a vacation to Jamaica, we constantly set our minds on what's ahead that is fun (or at least more fun than what is happening presently). This is a dilemma when you think more into it. If we are always looking forward to something else, then we will never be satisfied! After one weekend is gone, you immediately set your mind to the next. As the weeks past by, you wonder what you have spent your time on. You go to school or work during the week, have fun on the weekends, and that's it. The process repeats itself until you are officially depressed from life's existence. What else is there to live for? I have tried it all (or at least enough to realize the truth). I consistently end up empty after the day is done. Looking forward to things gets tiring. It is like blowing bubbles that disappear or building a sand castle the ocean washes away.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Therefore, I focus not on temporary pleasures that society emphasizes, but on the Lord's eternal joy that fills the emptiness. It is difficult to look past what is seen and "fix our eyes on what is unseen." But through Christ, anything is possible. His encouraging word brings joy that no temporary thing can replace.

So when the world tells me to constantly look forward to temporary things of the world, like the weekend, I know that I can be content in every situation. Whether I be sitting in school Monday morning or doing my homework Thursday night, I know that the weekend ahead will soon be gone just like the previous one. It won't satisfy my needs. I cannot live on bread alone, but on God's word and the eternal rewards that come with it. And I will thank Him everyday for the joy He brings.

-Bubble picture found on Google