Bang your hand upon a table and you’d be tempted to believe that this is the real world. But you’d be wrong.

For this world, with all its solidity, with all its ubiquity, and even with all its beauty, is passing away. There is coming an end to this physical universe – a day when all creation will see and declare that Jesus is Lord! On that day, the real world will be evidently clear.

It is the spiritual world that is the real world. It is the spiritual world that matters. It is the spiritual world that is eternal. And if we had spiritual eyes to see it, we could visually witness the terrible war that is constantly raging for control of human souls. For God desires that all be saved forever in Heaven, while Satan desires that all be tormented forever in Hell. Indeed, this war began the moment that our first parents (tempted by the Devil) sinned against God, and it hasn’t ceased. Nor will it, until the end of time.

So again the question: Which is the real world? Is it this world, created by God out of nothing, and which will go back to nothing? Or is it the spiritual world, which God maintains eternally?

Lastly, let’s remember who benefits from our focusing on this world and neglecting the eternal one – the Devil. For the more we allow ourselves to become enmeshed in this world, the further we distance ourselves from God’s. And how does the Devil manage that? One weapon he uses is convincing us that this world is the one that matters.

The word facade comes to mind here. [My Cousin Vinny movie’s house-of-cards scene]