Difficult questions, with Luca, Brian and John.

We were sitting round the table eating and chatting. Eleven-year-old grandson-Luca declared that he was a ‘pre-teen’; nineteen-year-old grand-daughter Hannah, looking forward to her next birthday declared that she was a pre-twenty-er.

Luca asked daughter-Jo about when she completes her ministerial training. She explained that she’ll be a ‘reverend’. So the principle is that we’re defined by what comes next…

I asked what that made me. Am I a pre-die-er? Amongst the laughter and discussion as to whether that was an appropriate question Luca asked, ‘What’s the point of living if all we do is die at the end?’ Great question!

Later I watched a ‘Queen’ documentary that included Freddy Mercury singing the Brian May song ‘Who wants to live forever?’:

‘There’s no time for us
There’s no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams
Yet tips ’em away from us

Who wants to live forever?…’

He asks great but difficult questions, whether living forever is really desirable… asking about dreams, love and hope in the context of mortality, vulnerability and uncertainty.

Brian encourages us to cherish the ‘sweet moment set aside for us’, making the most of the time we have… raising paradoxical questions about the fleeting, finite nature of a fragile life in the context of a timeless universe and eternity.

This morning I read the apostle John’s ‘Revelation’. In a vision he sees a scroll that contains an account of God’s plans for the world. The scroll’s all sealed up. No-one can open it to see what it says. No-one can answer the big questions. John’s distraught and weeps.

There’s a big announcement. A strong conquering lion will come to open the scroll and reveal the answers… John looks up – there’s a lamb, that’s been slaughtered… it’s the paradox of Jesus as a lion and a lamb… of the answers to time and eternity lying in strength and power yet weakness and humility…

…And I’m left musing on Luca’s great question, and the insights given by Brian and John.