There was something pretty surreal about watching my two-year-old walk the same hallways I did when I was two. It seems nothing has changed. Because my parents no longer live there, the house is pretty much the same as when I left 20 years ago: same wallpaper, same carpet... it is amazing. Like stepping back in time. Home has always been a secure place... and it's almost like time stops when I'm there. But this year I was very much aware of the passing of time. Generations moving on. I have a daughter, my parents are aging. Stores that were there when I was younger, now long gone. And yet it all seems so familiar.
I wonder if heaven will seem familiar? I wonder if it will be totally different, and yet feel so comfortable... like we lived there before. Like everything is as it has always been... or at least should be.
5 comments:
paul... somehow i've never made this analogy. but now that you pose the question, i feel the same way.
great post. moving.
Good post, Paul, and great picture.
C.S. Lewis presented much the same idea in The Last Battle: the new Narnia was just like the old one, except somehow more so (deeper, fuller, more what it was supposed to be). I don't expect heaven to resemble Earth so closely (or should I reverse that order?), but I suspect that the what you were saying and the feeling Lewis was trying to capture in that part of his story may turn out to be the case.
Randy wrote another really big book called, "Dominion" that I'm working through right now (Thanks Sarah). And although he has some interesting things to say, I'm not sure that I can buy into some blocks of his thought. And where some are probably drawn to his radical side... I confess I am not. (But that might say more about me than him, right?)
My sense is that I probably agree with a significant parts of his understanding of heaven. Ever since seminary, I have really gravitated to the "Heaven as renewed earth" idea...the idea of heaven as "off in the clouds" never made theological sense to me... and honestly seems quite boring.
But although Randy and I might have great similarities about how we see heaven... my guess is that the things that bring us to those conclusions differ... and therefore key parts of our conclusions might as well. But I might put that on my "to read" list... the man has some interesting things to say.
BTW, I was really troubled by the way the book was presented! I know the author doesn't write the book summaries but the publisher made me never want to buy the book:
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Publisher's summary of "Heaven," by Randy Alcorn
The next time you hear someone say,"We can't begin to imagine what Heaven will be like," tell them,"I can."
Have you ever wondered . . .
What is Heaven really going to be like?
What will we look like?
What will we do every day?
Won't Heaven get boring after a while?
We all have questions about what Heaven will be like, and after twenty-five years of extensive research, Dr. Randy Alcorn has the answers.
_________________
WOW, REALLY? He has THE answers?
He just figured this all out...after 25 years of extensive research and a doctorate. :O)
Thanks Todd
I'm confused... are we talking about Matthew Scully, conservative and former George W. Bush speechwriter, or someone else?
I'm sorry... I got my authors confused. (Got to hate it when that happens!) I was pulling stuff from both people... and forming them into the same author. Therefore... my entire preceeding post makes absolutely no sense. Please block it out of your memory.
Thank you.
The Management.
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