C.S. Lewis says that bad things are simply good things gone bad. Like when I wait too long to drink fresh milk it grows sour clumps.
And how good a thing can be seems to correlate to how bad it can become. Making love can be as beautiful as rape is horrible. Drugs have the power to save lives, but also have the power to ruin them.
But then I thought, maybe if I look at the horrible things out there for which I see no opposite good, maybe they can tell me about good things that have yet to be seen. What was that thing made to be before it went bad?
For example, maybe the monsters that terrorize humans in horror movies, like Draculas and Dragons, are a reflection of the beautiful creatures that will serve us in God’s kingdom? Perhaps concentration camps, where monstrosities were committed because humans were thought of as worthless objects, are a reflection of a place where we will see the infinite worth built into each person, where we will throw parades and feasts for each other just because we see that the beauty inside my friends merits it.
What about hell? A kingdom that seems so cruel, unjust, and evil that it makes me ask why would our God allow it.
And the answer I keep coming to is that whatever it is that we have waiting for us in heaven, like the rest of these powerful gifts, must be good enough to make the God of the universe think it all worth it, and still make it.
What are your thoughts?
Raw Spoon, 10-18-13
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