Imagine a child who has been told by a playmate that years ago white people owned black people like a family owns a lawn mower. She is appalled and approaches Grandpa to discover if it was really true, why it happened and how it ended. Grandpa does his best to explain how adults did things that children by instinct know are dreadfully wrong.

A couple decades from now-say the year 2032-a very similar conversation might go like this:

“Grandpa, is it true mommies used to kill their babies in their tummies?”

“Yes, Hannah. That was a sad time in our history. We are still dealing with some of that pain today.”

“Why, Grandpa, why? How could mommies do that?”

“You ask hard questions, Hannah. Many people back then thought that babies in mommies’ tummies were not real people. Our Supreme Court said that a mommy could kill the baby in her because it was not really a person but just bodily tissue, like a wart or a mole.”

“But Grandpa, how could they think like that?”

“Well, back then Mommies and Daddies got confused in their thinking. They said things to themselves like:

My boyfriend won’t stay with me if I have a baby

A baby would get in the way of next year’s vacation

I just can’t handle a baby right now

We have family problems. My child would be happier dead.

Part of the sadness is that the people who could have helped us solve our problems and made our lives happier never lived. Perhaps a Dr. Sara Winter would have discovered the cure for cancer. Secretary of State Randal Crest would have used his diplomatic arts to prevent the last war. The heartwarming novelist Linda Post would have soothed our broken hearts. But all of them, the friendly baker and funny car mechanic, were never born because their parents killed them before they could be born.”

“What stopped mommies from doing what they did?”

“Many of us thought if we could just change the laws we could stop it. We were partly right. What helped most was when people learned to help mommies who felt overwhelmed care for their babies. Others adopted children whose mommies felt they could not take good care of a baby. But what finally stopped it was our money collapse and the war.

Hannah, 50 million children were lost because of what confused mommies and daddies did. That’s a big number. They never grew up to help our government care for the weak and elderly. Our Social Security system collapsed. We were missing the people who could have defended us when the war came to America. Many of us died before the war was stopped. Only God could find a way to recover all that was lost. We are still missing those who could have been born to help us.”

“Grandpa, I don’t understand everything you said, but it makes me feel like crying.”

“Hannah, America has learned from our history and we are overcoming the pains. Every one of your playmates, and all of us, can be grateful that it’s over.”

Steven C Johnson

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The lights flashed, the big polls would fold down and the bells would ding. A train was coming! We would jump up and down on the back seat shouting, “A train, a train, a train!” Count the cars. Look at the shapes and letters on the side. What’s inside those cars? Where is it going? We were full of awe and wonder!

Adulthood sucks out of us the capacity for astonishment. The downgrade attitudes of “Been there, done that, seen that,” demonically pillage us of the capacity for amazement. The evil spirits whisper, “The train is boring.” Demons may even shout, “This train is an offense to the god of hurry!”

“The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy” the entrancement we find in steam coming off the soup, water ripples in the bathtub and curtains wrinkling in the breeze.

Wonder is the springboard into worship. We live in stark poverty without it. Who will save us and restore the wonder? The answer comes from Isaiah 11:6; “… a little child will lead them.”

Only a child can rescue us! Jesus, of course, was never plundered of His wonderment. Even as an adult He was able to be fascinated by the birds and flowering grass. He warned adults we would be hopelessly lost without child-likeness.

The prescription is to find a child to teach us the amazing world of flashlights in dark bedrooms, the enchanting fragrances of spices in the cupboard and the way a spider weaves a web. These are things every adult should learn! With remedial help we can recover wonderment.

Look! A train, a train, a train!

Steven C Johnson

https://landingstripenterprises.com/

 

 

 

 

 

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The Curse was spoken; “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” But that is not the end of the story. It is only the first few pages. The end has the music of billions of angels!

Sin’s consequence is death but the grace of our Father generates life! “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Rom 5:17 NIV)

Our CREATOR exercised plan and will, intelligence and power to fashion us. Some day he will be worshiped as the RE-CREATOR.

It goes this way:

1 God’s Bright Idea – Turn dust into mankind! The morning stars sang with wonder!

2 Man’s Iniquity – Mankind returns to dust. Dreadfully sad!

3 God’s Redemption – Reconstituting dust to life again! Rapturous Resurrection!

Picture a house destroyed by fire and turned to ash. The Architect however made blueprints so exacting that every measurement, every grain of grout, every precise placement of shingle and nail and door hinge were defined to the finest detail. The exact house could be reconstructed again. Scientists are mapping the human genome. God got a head start on them.

The unrelenting dominion of death will be broken as the CREATOR puts dust, reconstituted dust, together again. This time the dust will never unravel but stay together for eternity!

The heavens will ring again with song and we will worship the RE-CREATOR!

Steven C Johnson

https://landingstripenterprises.com/

LISTEN TO THIS BLOG HERE!

Here is a show-stopping quote from Joseph Addison (1672-1719). He was an English politician and writer. You might read this in granny gear. You’ll see why.

“When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me;

when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out;

when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion;

when I see the tombs of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow;

when I see kings lying by those who deposed them,

when I consider rival wits placed side by side,

or the men that divided the world with their contests and disputes,

I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.

When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great Day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together”

You need strong mandibles to chew on Addison’s words! How profound the notion that you and I, and everyone that has ever lived, will at a future date, be contemporaries and “make our appearance together!”

An angelic messenger gave Daniel the word on the resurrection 500 years before Christ’s advent. “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2 NIV).

Daniel himself he was given these comforting words in his old age: “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance” (Dan 12:13).

If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you on the Great Day as we make our appearance together.

Steven C Johnson

https://landingstripenterprises.com/