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Jim McCrory

Why Are We Here? Let's Escape This World For a Moment

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Thursday, 12 Sept 2024, 18:02

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” 


Image by https://unsplash.com/@cosmictimetraveler

I live in Scotland, and I know it’s rude to ask people’s age, but what age are you? Not that I’m prying —— goodness, I run away from prying people. Anyway, I’m just wondering if you are at this stage in life where you wonder, what’s it all about? Life, I mean. Why are we here? Are we just products of an aimless evolution and were just dancing to our DNA?

Well, you may believe that, but is that something you reasoned into or something you just accept because everyone else does? Hmm!  That’s no way to understand why we are here.

Let’s look at the evidence: We live on a beautiful planet. To be honest, it’s man that’s ruining it. Science doesn’t know who or what put the universe here, and yet, our planet is perfect for human habitation. We see beauty in flowers, animals, the microcosm, and the macrocosm. We see all this in colour. We love poetry, music, sport, dancing and just sitting in a summer evening with that hygge feeling as we sit watching a sundown with family and friends.

But then, we grow old, and wonder, why all this? Will it all be over for me soon. Yes, and torschlusspanik kicks in; that feeling that the doors are closing in on you. And you ask yourself again, what’s it all about?

This is where it all gets contradictory. You see, if evolution were true, we wouldn’t ask these questions. We would just say hatches, matches, and despatches, concluding that we are here to be born, mate, keep the line going and then depart. But no, we want to live forever. No. you don't believe that? Okay, when would you like to die? Tomorrow, next week, next year. No, we want to hold on to life as long as we can.

My sister was out one day and observed an old man crying as he looked at the landscape.

“Are you okay?” my sister asked.

“I see all this beauty and I don’t have much longer to live, but I want to stay.” He answered.

The old man felt like that because we have been programmed from birth to have life indefinite in our heart. Look at Ecclesiastes 3:11,

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” (NIV)

So, what about you and me? Is God going to give us that feeling and not open the door for us in some way?

Jesus spoke to a man when they both were dying, the man asked for Jesus to remember him when he got into his Kingdom. Look what Jesus said,

Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43 (NIV).

This tells us where we can go, but not why we are here, right? Okay, here is my theory. Could it be that we are born here as a test?  You see there is this story in the Book of Job where Satan said to God that man only serves God for what he can get. Job chapter 1.

Let’s just stop there to take this all in. Satan has claimed that we would serve God for selfish gain only. I think Satan has a point, don’t you? But wait, that may be true of some, but not all. There are many people out there that would give their life to God and Jesus.

But there’s another factor here. 

God permitted Satan to test Job. So, there’s no doubt who’s in power here. Rather, it’s a moral issue. A moral issue that takes humankind’s lifetime to settle.

Let’s illustrate. If I were to say to you “I’m more honest than you. “How do we settle that? It would take our lifetime. And so it goes with God putting us here. We are here to be tested as to whether we are willing to side with God or Satan on this issue regarding man being selfish or selfless towards God. Look,

For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16: 9 (NIV).


Writing:  © 2024 Jim McCrory

 

 

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 


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Jim McCrory

The Secret Kept in Children's Books and Picturebooks

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Monday, 26 Aug 2024, 11:13

"“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
― C.S. Lewis


Image by https://unsplash.com/@matblueforest

I have an embarrassing  secret. I am happy to tell you what it is so long as you don’t tell anyone. Is that a deal? This is my secret. I love children’s books. At my age I should know better, but it's an addiction . I love them so much that I changed my degree from a Literature Degree to an Open Degree to accommodate EA300 Children’s Literature with The Open University.

Gyo Fujikawa is the most addictive for me. Children in paradise. Waving from tree houses. Gentle fairies and children no bigger than polka-dot toadstools. Captivating. But, there's the loneliness of the child with no one to play with except a frog. That saddens me. I was a lonely child and I empathise. 

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-gyo-fujikawa-drew-freedom-in-childrens-books

Then there’s Astrid Lindgren’s The Children of Noisy Village. I’m a Swedophile who can speak a few words of Swedish and I am in awe of the beauty and setting where the tale is filmed. An age of innocence. Swedish village life that will never return, perhaps.

https://tv.apple.com/no/movie/the-children-of-noisy-village/umc.cmc.13bmjs0xgg1sv8sju2tv3za5j

There’s the Portuguese word that best explains my longing to enter a world that these stories encapsulate, Saudade,  a longing or nostalgia for something that cannot be realised.

I guess the reason such stories appeal is the desire to escape mentally from this broken world. C.S. Lewis wrote:

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Interesting, but what world did C.S Lewis mean? Did he mean the world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? No, he was a Christian and an academic who wrote children’s books, Christian, apologetic and academic books. The world he was thinking of was the world recorded in Luke 23:43 “Truly I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Writing:  © 2024 Jim McCrory


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Jim McCrory

The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Wednesday, 17 July 2024, 12:21


Image of Bran, Romania, by Calin Stan at https://unsplash.com/@calinstan


The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo

 

In a recent post, I wrote about a music teacher who changed my life and made me believe that Scandinavia was my real home.

Last night, my wife and I watched a moving documentary on Netflix called The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo.

It told the story of a teenage Chinese boy with a good heart who developed a deep desire to study literature and Romanian language in a Romanian university. His love for the country and nation was inspired by the Romanian national poet, Mihai Eminescu. Yuguo, left an incredible impression on his university teachers and the nation as a whole. Somewhere in the future haven of wonder, I hope I will meet Yuguo. His story among other matters, stand as a testament to the transforming power of literature.

I'm curious about all this; is there a place you always felt you belonged to? Make a comment, please.

*******

 “You may have the universe if I may have Italy”: Giuseppe Verdi

After the documentary, I asked my wife, “Is there a place that draws you and makes you feel you belong there?” She replied, “Italy.”

C.S. Lewis wrote of the emotion that creates a desire to live in another world as a glimpse of a future paradise. He wrote,

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we are made for another world.”

And Jesus said to the repentant criminal, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43 (Legacy Standard Bible).





Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc.  LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.

 

 


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