Tolstoy begins his classic novel Anna Karenina as follows, “ALL happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Have you ever noticed the interest level of Christmas letters from various families? The ones that report 12 months of joy and perfection are not nearly as interesting as those that beguile us with 52 weeks of interesting misery and failure. “Jim lost his job. Jacob broke his leg. Nancy is pregnant. I’m taking Prozac.” is much more interesting than “Jim got a huge raise. (We hate him for that.) Jacob won all his ball games and Nancy was 4th runner up in the Miss Mudville beauty pageant.” Movie directors often put a bad word in their production to keep it from getting a G rating, which is a death knell at the box office. Cinderella is interesting because of her evil stepmother and step sisters. It wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if the prince wasn’t rescuing her.
This brings me to our projected concept of heaven. Being that there will be no misery, no broken legs, etc. will we entertain each other with travelogues of our universal sightseeing? Or will our minds only be filled with philosophical discussions of our new insights into the plan of redemption? We will certainly develop artistic skills. Will the products of our studios be mirrors of perfection as opposed to few such interesting works we see here?
The story of redemption is interesting for us in that it is a rescue story. Jesus saves us from evil. He saves us from Satan. He saves us from the wicked. He saves us from ourselves. So just how will we spend forever? What will we read? What will we paint and talk about? There is so much we need to know about our future. It is more than petting lions.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 14, 2013
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org