Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, April 19, 2024
This past Thursday was a blue-sky day, with lots of clouds. As Shelley and I took our walk, I did something I hadn’t done in literally decades—I tried to find recognizable images in the clouds.
This one leaped out at me. Do you see the eager dinosaur, chin being brushed by the treetop, pursuing a little white cloud-morsel, maybe a bird, who’s backing away in alarm? Have you spotted this primordial predation?
But do you also pause to wonder at what kind of mind I have? After all, this dinosaur (if that’s what it is) is wearing a smile. Maybe he’s cheerfully chasing a ball, or a leaf. Or maybe he’s simply sharing a belly-laugh joke with a passing bird.
The sad thing about my noggin, and probably a whole lot of other sin-cynicized earthly noggins, is that it has a propensity to evil, a tendency to see the worst rather than the best.
But there was no predation in Eden, right? Genesis 1:29-30 says that both humans and animals were vegetarians. There may have been good-humored rough-and-tumble among the creatures, but also a sense of absolute safety and love.
And there’s good news about Eden restored. Because God will indeed give us Eden again:
“For behold, [He says] I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying. Isaiah 65:17 – 19 NKJV
And there, the creatures will be at peace as well:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:6 – 9
For more Bible facts about heaven, click the link below:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/heaven