I'm still reading Randy Alcorn's Heaven, slowly but surely. It is so wonderfully written. It has plenty of creativity and imagination, but it's not without scriptures to thoughtfully and carefully uphold it. It's truly captivating.
I read something today that really resounded with how I feel. Perhaps it is the melancholy artist/musician-type within, but I feel this all around, every day.
Do you ever sense creation's restlessness? Do you hear groaning in the cold night wind? Do you feel the forest's loneliness, the ocean's agitation? Do you hear longing in the cries of whales? Do you see blood and pain in the eyes of wild animals, or the mixture of pleasure and pain in the eyes of your pets? Despite vestiges of beauty and joy, something on this earth is terribly wrong. Not only God's creatures but even inanimate objects seem to feel it.
God has made us all so differently. We all feel his presence, his power, love, and sense of unworthiness before Him in different ways. For me, it's through the things mentioned above, especially the animals. I can't count the times I've cried for forgiveness for my own sinfulness after witnessing or hearing of the suffering of animals. Without my sin nature, God's creatures and all of His creation would not have to suffer. This is terribly distressing for me.
Alcorn goes on to say:
But there's hope, visible in springtime after a hard winter. As Martin Luther put it, "Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime." The creation hopes for, even anticipates, resurrection.
Oh, Lord, how long?
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