Augustine on Future Expectations in Life

When we are infants we look forward to childhood; in childhood we look forward to adolescence; in adolescence we look forward to being an adult in the prime of life; in middle age we await the coming of old age [I note he does not say we look forward to old age]. But when we are old we realize that there is to be no new age in this life.

—Augustine, Letter 213.1

Here Augustine reminds us that life is more than physical existence. Life is having a relationship with the living God, a relationship that transcends our physical existence and promises to redeem and restore it.