The goal of this blog is to proclaim Jesus as the greatest satisfaction to every human need by pointing to His superior worth over anything else life can offer. I try to write every post with this in mind, and it tends to lead to posts that are sometimes serious, sometimes reflective, sometimes uplifting–but typically Christ-centered.
This post is for fun. Because I think Jesus likes fun too. I’m feeling sentimental as I look at the Smilebox my wife, Anna, created for our 2009 Christmas card. Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s my wife’s beauty, maybe it’s the fact that I’ve settled back in the grind of work and life after Christmas break with family and feel a sense of longing as these memories come flooding back.
I don’t know if you’re the sentimental type too, but there’s just something powerful about pausing to meditate on the best parts of life. So much of our lives goes by quickly–pages turn one after another, full of pressing calls or TV shows or spreadsheets or deadlines. This is why we take pictures–to remember the sentences or paragraphs in our lives that truly mean something to us. After all, no one takes pictures of their spreadsheets.
I’ve always associated sentimentality with the past, but I see no reason we cannot feel these deep kinds of emotions about the future. There’s one scene in particular that creates this same sense of longing within me, but it goes a bit deeper. It makes me think all the parts of my life that are meaningful, the paragraphs that bring a hint of tears to my eyes, are meant to echo this final scene.
Pause with me for a moment, and grow sentimental:
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Rev 22:1-5).
I guess this post was about Jesus after all. But also fun.