Vanishing Skies

Jun 20 2025 - Eric Buresh

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, 
And look on the earth beneath. 
For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, 
The earth will grow old like a garment, 
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; 
But My salvation will be forever, 
And My righteousness will not be abolished.
Isaiah 51:6 

Our church has been focused this year on the idea of seeing as God sees – emphasizing an eternal perspective. It is a focus that calls us to surrender our relentless worship of the temporal – a call my heart, in part, still resists. I write today to those parts of my own heart: 

Lift up your eyes, child of dust. Look to the stars in their ordered beauty. Look to the earth with its mountains and oceans, its nations and cities. Look, and understand: all of it shall pass away. The heavens above will vanish like the last curl of smoke from a dying fire. The earth, so solid beneath your feet, will wear out like an old garment, threadbare, tossed aside. 

And what of men? What of kings and merchants, architects and laborers, tyrants and saints? They, too, shall die. Like leaves falling in season, so shall every generation lie down in the dust. The world is a fading flower, a breath, a vapor on the glass. 

Oh, that we would believe this! 

Oh, that we would preach this to our own anxious, greedy, comfort-worshiping hearts! 

The house you build will crumble. 
The wealth you store will slip through your fingers. 
The fame you chase will be forgotten. 
The strength you boast in will fail. 

And yet, says the Lord, “My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished.” 

Granite in a world of sand. The eternal amid the disposable. God’s salvation does not decay. His righteousness does not fade. The gospel never goes out of season. The blood of Jesus Christ never loses its power. The promises made to the saints will not be undone by the rust of time or the storms of history. 

Live with eternity in view. Turn your gaze from the things that perish and fix it on the things that endure. The Word of God. The soul of man. The blood of the Lamb. The Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Spiritual growth, holiness, love for Christ, faith—these are the treasures that cannot be stolen and will not burn. Cultivate them. Pursue them. 

And in these days of shaking—when economies tremble, when nations rage, when bodies fail and hearts break—do not despair. God’s salvation is still the same. The cross still stands. The tomb is still empty. The throne is still occupied.