[“If God Is Good” by Randy Alcorn, Multnomah Press]
I heard a story of a kind-hearted king who finds a blind, destitute orphan
boy while hunting in a forest. The kind takes the boy to his palace, adopts
him as his son, and provides for his care. He sees that the boy receives
the finest education. The boy is extremely grateful, and he loves the king,
his new father, with all his heart,
When the boy turns twenty, a surgeon performs an operation on his eyes, and
for the first time he is able to see.
This boy, once a starving orphan, has for some years been a royal prince, at
home in the king’s palace. But something wonderful has happened, something
far greater than the magnificent food, gardens, libraries, music, and
wonders of the palace. The boy is finally able to SEE the face of the
father he adores.
He loves his father because his father loved him. THE LOVE IN THE SON’S
HEART IS THE THUNDER PRODUCED BY THE LIGHTNING OF HIS FATHER’S LOVE!
The father’s rescue of the starving child is like our conversion. We come
to know God’s love and enjoy his indwelling presence, but still we cannot
fully see. The day is coming when we will live in a glorious world where
all will be beautiful beyond our imagination, with feasts, gardens, fruit
trees, rivers and mountains, music and art, and perhaps libraries, games,
and dramas.
But all these magnificent wonders will be secondary, mere tributes to the
King. For by far our greatest thrill will be when, with resurrected eyes,
we see for the first time the face of the God who loved us so much as to
pour out his life for us.
John Donne put it beautifully: “I shall rise from the dead. I shall see the
Son of God, the Sun of Glory, and shine myself as that Sun shines. I shall
be united to the Ancient of Days, to God Himself, who had no morning, never
began. No man ever saw God and lived. And yet, I shall not live till I see
God; and when I have seen Him, I shall never die!”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”