Luke writes,
“I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.”
~Luke 1:3 (NRSV).
We (humanity) are usually found stretching toward one of either of two camps regarding gospel truth. Either we’re that close to it we struggle at times to be genuinely touched by the fullest measure of its power, or there are those who think it’s hogwash.
I wonder what heaven will truly be like. As I read the concluding verses of ‘extended’ Mark (verses 9-20 of chapter 16) before venturing on into Luke I was captivated by the sense of Jesus’ ascension (verse 19) — a fact it’ll be for us one day; to ascend and to meet our Saviour. Nothing can prepare us for that time.
But the matters-of-fact regarding heaven don’t perhaps captivate us like they used to. They should always captivate us.
Likewise, we’re often found ‘flat’ regarding the awe-inspiring facts of the gospel account realities — until we sit and take our time to re-reflect; to allow wonder to absorb us, soaking us in its salubrious candour.
Two Meticulously Researched Accounts
Both of Luke’s books — The Gospel According to Luke and The Acts of the Apostles — are concise and historically factual. They have unquestioned scholarly credibility.
Yet, they call us to something that sits hardly noticeable. The compassion of Jesus is shown time and again in Luke. Acts proves in the signs and wonders done, as well as the preaching of Peter and Paul, together with the appearance — now for all time — of the Holy Spirit, that ‘the gospel’ is about a supernatural God, a Deity who’s marked most of all for Love.
As we read both documents from the historian physician we can have high confidence in this God-inspired Word.
Signs of Things to Come
The post-death life has us in fits of all manner of response.
But what if there was absolutely nothing to fear, and only things to look forward to; things that would absolutely blow our minds. This is perhaps what God has in mind. As we wonder about how truly big God is, having designed such an incredible universe, we can also wonder what ‘the other world’ is like. How incomprehensible could it be?
The idea of heaven and angels and eternity captivates Christians and non-believers alike. It has to. It defies this world. It confounds it.
The rational ‘enlightened’ world has no answer for it.
The Gospel Accounts Lead Us in Such Charges of Wonder
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each share the same characteristic in their own unique way.
It is witness of wonder.
As a collection of writings they position a spotlight on the unsaid wonder of eternity. If God were so gracious to send his one and only Son to break the curse of sin, to have him live the most magnanimously adroit life in history, it can possibly be seen that there is an even more complete wonder that is yet to come.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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