Between the Eternities

I’ve enjoyed Broken Trail, starring, among others, Robert Duvall, several times since its television debut in 2006. Set in 1898, it’s the tale of how Prentice Ritter (Duvall) and Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) became reluctant guardians of five abused and abandoned Chinese girls who had been sold into prostitution. They transport them, along with a herd of horses they hope to sell, from Oregon to Wyoming. It’s a poignant story, entertaining and heart-warming.

When one girls dies in an accident, Ritter is positioned to give the eulogy. He says, “We are all travelers in this world. From the sweet-grass to the packing house, birth till death, we travel between the eternities.” Beautiful. And true. A vast expanse of time stretches behind us. Before us, are years uncounted we will understand in different circumstance. But our time on earth is brief, not to be taken lightly, and must be spent with eternity in mind.

The thought is too large for us, really. It points to the insignificance of our lives as parts of the whole and, at the same time, steers us to become parts of something bigger than ourselves. Something that will ultimately matter.

How are we spending our lives? Good question. Seen another way, we can’t do anything about the past because it is past. Our deeds have become threads in the tapestry of yesterday. The future is another matter.

Living small and living big. A brief time on earth and eternity somewhere else. They are separate and connected at the same time. Separate because the realities are different and connected because they are continuous. How I live now affects where I live then. The quality of temporality affects the quality of eternity. From the sweet-grass to the packing house, we are all travelers in this world.

God made us lower than the angels but gave us destiny greater than they. We do not comprehend the expanse of infinity beyond our grasp, but we know the love of the King of heaven as it shines on our lives. For beings as a morning mist laboring between the ages, it’s too much to bear. We are overcome with the idea and the truth of it. But it is real, and our time is passing, for good or for evil. Make it for good.

Happy trails!

Sterl