About AD 700 the venerable Bede wrote “The History of the English Church and
People”. He shared the story of Paulinus, a missionary to the Anglo-Saxons
and how he tried to convert the English to Christianity. Paulinus visited
King Edwin in the year AD 627. Edwin and his followers worshipped pagan gods
and had no concept of a better afterlife to look forward to. Edwin was
impressed with the ideas of Paulinus, but decided to hear the views of his
advisors before deciding whether to convert to Christianity. One of them
spoke in favor of Christianity, and put the case like this:
“Your Majesty, when we compare the present life of man on earth with that
time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the swift flight of
a single sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you are sitting at dinner
on a winter’s day with your thanes and counselors. Inside, there is a
comforting fire to warm the hall; outside, the storms of winter rain or snow
are raging. This sparrow flies swiftly in through one door of the hall, and
out through another. While he is inside, he is safe from the winter storms;
but after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry
world from which he came. So man appears on earth for a little while, but of
what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing. Therefore,
if this new teaching has brought any more certain knowledge, it seems only
right that we should follow it.”
What Edwin’s advisor has come to understand is that this life – although it
is all that we can truly know by observation – is not all that there is.
Therefore it should not be of the greatest significance to us nor should
giving all that we have in order to make this world more comfortable for
ourselves be our greatest goal.
Jesus told a parable about a man so satisfied with his good life on earth
who said (in our modern vernacular) to himself, “I’ve got it all.” Jesus’
response was simply, “Fool!” Jesus calls him a fool not because he was
wealthy (there is no condemnation there) or successful, but because the man
planned as though the life he was living was all that there was.
To use the analogy of the sparrow that flew through the banquet hall, the
man did not plan for what would happen after he flew out the other window.
He had this life all worked out but he didn’t plan for what would happen to
him after he died.
Oh, that I would be a sparrow who, when flying out of the bright lights of
these earthly years, would find eternal lodging close to my blessed Savior.
Psalm 84:1-3 “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul
yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry
out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a
nest for herself, where she may have her young– a place near your altar, O
LORD Almighty, my King and my God.”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”