A mild-mannered woman shifted...
Illustration
A mild-mannered woman shifted uncomfortably in her pew when the lay leader for the morning read words declaring that only those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life could enter the Eternal City. Everything else about that passage from Revelation appealed to her. Bright images, perfect symmetries, fruit for all seasons, a healing of the nations -- as always, these hints of eternity lifted her in ways she could not fully express. But then, right in the midst of it, there came that jarring note of judgment. It sounded so off key ... so ... so Victorian!
As the woman wrestled with her discomfort, her thoughts began to wander. She didn't catch much of the sermon. Strange scenes pressed into her mind. She figured in some of them. In others, she felt she hovered above, just as an observer. She caught sight of vast throngs of people languishing in hunger and oppression, while smaller groups, looking oddly familiar, feasted and took their ease. She witnessed persons being faithless to vows they had made many years before. She saw whole lives poured out for the most trivial of goals while the chances to love, to be of service, to be at least of some small effect lay so close at hand.
At length, just as the minister was saying "Let us pray," a single thought passed through her mind: "There can be no paradise without the judgment and rejection of all that is wrong."
As the woman wrestled with her discomfort, her thoughts began to wander. She didn't catch much of the sermon. Strange scenes pressed into her mind. She figured in some of them. In others, she felt she hovered above, just as an observer. She caught sight of vast throngs of people languishing in hunger and oppression, while smaller groups, looking oddly familiar, feasted and took their ease. She witnessed persons being faithless to vows they had made many years before. She saw whole lives poured out for the most trivial of goals while the chances to love, to be of service, to be at least of some small effect lay so close at hand.
At length, just as the minister was saying "Let us pray," a single thought passed through her mind: "There can be no paradise without the judgment and rejection of all that is wrong."
