Pie in the Sky

Sometimes some accuse me of being too much a ‘pie-in-the-sky’ kind of guy who looks too much toward heaven when there is so much work to be done on earth to create our own Eden. Too much an eye, they say, toward children’s fairy tales, Sunday school fables, and gullible promises of something better.

Oh! For something better.

When the Creator of Something Better is tossed out of our culture and depravity is exalted among us by politicians and judges, educators and administrators, clergy and laity . . . We expect something better without Him?

How do we yet wonder that evil is so free to grip the soul and darken the heart of one who strolls into a theater and mercilessly murders strangers? Why do we wonder why evil is so free to poison the hearts of those who ruin children -- and of those who turn blind eyes to the seduction of innocents in university locker rooms and grade school classes? Why do we wonder how evil is so free to flash welcoming smiles at mothers a hundred-thousand times a month in America – a hundred-thousand times a month – who bring their pre-born to a clinic for slaughter?

No wonder the psalmist warned, "The wicked strut about on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men."  (Psalm 12:8)

As we thrust God ever further from our churches, our schools, our governments, our markets – and evil grows in its boldness to ravage – mockers still mock me for looking for that place called heaven for something better?

Yes, I look. As a parched deer gasps to find water, I yearn for fulfillment of the promised ‘better.’ Promises like:

Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty. They shall behold a far-distant land. And no resident there shall say, “I am sick.” And everyone there will be forgiven their iniquities.¹

Promises like: Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. ‘For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone . . . ‘The fig tree has ripened its figs, and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!’”²

Oh, Lord. Come quickly.

^{1) Isaiah 33:17, 24 (NASB)}

^{2) Song of Solomon 2:10-13 (NASB)}