Ch. 2-The Time of the Quest

Chapter 2: The Time of the Quest: Time of Exile (p. 62)

*premise: We are not home yet. We are at the same time longing for Heaven, not finding it on earth, and longing for Eden our past perfect world here on earth. Sometimes, it feels as though we are stuck. What we really long for is for Christ’s redemption, for His redeeming our Eden, and for Heaven. We will have it in “the not yet.”

“Evasion is always temporary, a matter of time. Truth is a matter of eternity, whether it is truth evaded or truth faced.” “We may find our greatest hope precisely in the middle of our deepest despair, our way home in the center of our exile.”

“The only ultimate disaster that can befall us, I have come to realize, is to feel ourselves to be at home here on earth. As long as we are aliens, we cannot forget our true homeland.” Malcom Muggeridge

Longing for Eden

“Earthly dissatisfaction is the road to heavenly satisfaction.” (p. 63) “Rest along the way, premature rest, is danger; the way to true rest in restlessness.” (p. 65) “What is home? What are we longing for? Not just our lost youth, but humanity’s. We feel like dethroned princes turned into frogs by a magic spell and awaiting another magic spell, the transforming kiss, to restore our true identity.” (p. 70) The Bible also includes the nostalgic note of a Fall from Eden, an exile from the bliss of the intimate presence of God. We long in both directions: we feel both nostalgia and hope, fallen from the heights and on the upward road, exiles from Eden and apprentices to heaven. Even those who do not believe still feel; even those who do not hope for heaven still hope.” (p. 77) “We long for the infinitely old and infinitely new because we long for eternity.” (p. 80)

“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 mistake 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.” Thomas Howard, in Christ the Tiger. (p. 87, in Kreeft’s book)

“We can’t see that yet; our lives are ot yet one, whole, finished.” (p. 87)

II.