A few weeks ago Mr. Fantastic and I went to the movies. We saw at least three previews involving the end of the world as a result of aliens or robots taking over.
I was a little underwhelmed.
While all the previews looked super cool on their own, when strung together in a row they made one another look ridiculous. Honestly, how many ways can we imagine the end of human civilization as we know it?
Nonetheless, I suppose this fun doom-filled imagination lingered in my mind, because when Boy 3 refused to eat cauliflower a few days later I asked this:
“If you knew the earth was about to blow up and you could save it by eating cauliflower, would you eat it?”
I thought I had him. What boy doesn’t want to save the world? But he was ready for the question, apparently.
“No. I would build a rocket and we would all fly to Mars,” he replied.
All the other children jumped on this idea. They had it all planned out; how they would convince the evil forces to give them enough time to build rockets; how to mobilize all the people of earth to escape; they even decided what kind of world we would make on Mars.
It was an impressive display of planning and imagination.
Like Boy 3 I sometimes want to push away the cauliflower and fly to Mars.
Here I am on Spring Break, wishing for a way to run away from all my responsibilities. But what I really need is something even more amazing than a trip to Mars.
When life seems to grow heavy and its meaning is difficult to grasp, my heart craves the gospel.
I don’t need a break from what is difficult, I need good news from God.
There are many ways to imagine that our worlds could come to end; but God’s perfect love draws us past those problems and fears and into His presence.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 8:35-39
I’m not sure how much I will get done this week. But I hope to start school again on Monday with more of God’s love in my heart, and the sweetness of meeting Him in prayer squarely checked off my list.
I can’t imagine a better plan than that, even on Mars.
