Christ the Tiger

What a blessing to have the Evans, Morgan and Grimes Family for overnight guests! I count these lovely friends as "family" and am always uplifted by their presence. Over breakfast this morning my very favorite quote from any book, outside Scripture, came to mind as I thought how this time of fellowship was just a preview of Heaven and Eternity to come! How awesome it will be when, someday, all wrongs and injustices will be made right, fellowship among those who are estranged will be restored, all our brokenness will be healed, and all creation will be salvaged, whole and made new. I ended up looking up the quote once again, and it was just as meaningful now as it had been years ago. I must write it down.....(from Thomas Howard, Elisabeth Elliot's brother)

"I announce to you what is guessed at in all the phenomena of your world. You see the corn of wheat shrivel and break open and die, but you expect a crop. I tell you of the Springtime of which all springtimes speak. I tell you of the world for which this world groans and toward which it strains. I tell you that beyond the awful borders imposed by time and space and contingency, there lies what you seek. I nnounce to you life instead of mere existence, freedom instead of frustration, justice instead of compensation. For I announce to you redemption. Behold I make all things new. Behold I do what cannot be done. I restore the years that the locusts and worms have eaten. I restore the years which you have drooped away upon your crutches and in your wheel-chair. I restore the symphonies and operas which your deaf ears have never heard, and the snowy massif your blind eyes have never seen, and the freedom lost to you through plunder, and the identity lost to you because of calumny and the failure of justice; and I restore the good which your own foolish mistakes have cheated you of. And I bring you to the Love of which all other loves speak, the Love which is joy and beauty, and which you have sought in a thousand streets and for which you have wept and clawed your pillow."

"How can a man be expected to opt out of everything that looks important on the chance that there is more to it all than meets the eye? It is too great a risk. But perhaps, that is what is asked, I thought. Perhaps there is no escape from risk. Perhaps a man is asked to opt with all his might for authenticity, to respond with as much integrity as he can summon, to the cues. There ARE some--in his own consciousness, in his art, in his world. And then there is this great light that has appeared in the murk, like a morning star. It is there, silent and glorious.... calling us home."

What Howard didn't include, but a point that MUST be included, is that God left us, not only with clues, but with a living, indwelling Person and a true living Word to guide us, fill us, and lead us home......