The Unwritten Book I Need to Read
April 25, 2008
Fiction writing has never been my strong point, so when I thought of an idea for a new book, I realized quickly that the best I could do is describe the work and hope that the point gets across. The name would be something like, “A History of Pleasures Forevermore: The first three million years of the new creation.” As you can tell, my titling skills are equally lacking, but you get the idea.
The book would be a sort of chronicle written from an individual’s perspective and would commence around the time that the loud voice from the throne, having spoken the words, “Behold, I am making all things new,” finally declares, “It is done!” (Revelation 21:5-6). In the Preface the author would need to describe what it is like having a resurrection body like the Lord Jesus’ (minus the scars). Although the exhilaration of thinking with an undistracted mind and acting from a pure heart would be evident in how the book is written, this complete redemption of the believer’s body (Romans 8:23) would be marvelous enough to merit depiction.
I think what interests me most about this book is to be able to compare the author’s amazement over the splendor of God’s glory on day 80 with that of day 80,000. We get glimpses of the unveiled majesty of the Almighty in Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, and throughout Revelation. But these are special sightings, not prolonged gazes. Since God is infinitely glorious and our new minds will be unceasingly attentive, it seems that growing in the knowledge of God will be like rolling a snowball down a steep, snow-covered mountain. Not only will the snowball continue to increase in size until the word “ball” is inadequate, the descending, growing mass will increase in velocity as it charges toward the foot of the mountain. Except this mountain has no base; it never ends.
Thus the title, for all its inadequacies, includes a reference to Psalm 16:11 and the “pleasures forevermore” that exist in God’s presence. Such deepening, intensifying knowledge of God’s brilliant attributes can only lead to deepening, intensifying joy. How it is possible to improve upon the ecstasy of the initial, full-blown contact with the divine is beyond me. At the same time, it was hard to believe that marriage could get better than the honeymoon, but it has. The new creation will be a place where intimacy with God intensifies each moment; whoever writes this book will need serious help describing the joy-infused experience of year 2,834,062, because frankly it makes my head hurt.
Perhaps my greatest incentive in even pondering this mammoth tome is that my weak, not-yet-resurrected heart somehow is still drawn to pleasures that will fade over the course of 10 minutes, 36 hours, or perhaps even 85 years more than the crashing, accelerating snowplanet of knowing and enjoying God for 3 million-plus years. Somehow I can wake up in the morning with the audacious, blasphemous notion that God is dull compared to the Pennsylvania primary, the red-hot Diamondbacks, or the stock market roller coaster.
Thankfully God has granted us a down payment of this new creation, a first fruits of the harvest we will partake of eternally. Whether or not my true fiction work ever gets written, may the Holy Spirit enable us to be captivated by the ever-increasing glory that is coming our way.