I have a dream that one
day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low,
the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made
straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see
it together. --Dr. Martin Luther King
I, too, long for the day when all God’s children
will be freed from the bondage of ignorance and sin. On that day, we’ll be past
all the striving and--with equal access—turn our attention to where it should
have been all along, on God’s glory.
The characters in Every
Hill and Mountain get a chance to experience firsthand what it was
like to be a slave in pre-war Illinois when they find a weird computer program
that lets them travel back in time. Abby calls it
"time-surfing." It's only virtual time travel because I didn't want
them to accidentally mess up the whole space-time continuum thing. But it's
amazing all the same.
A few Christians have seemed a bit uncomfortable about this fantasy concept of time-surfing. But as Brother Greenfield says in Every Hill and Mountain, "Our God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Hallelujah! If he wants to give us a gift like that, he can.”
It's an amazing gift, all right. Except sometimes Abby and her friends learn more than they ever wanted to know about people from the past. Still, studying their lives of people teaches them about God's love and goodness in a new way. From the distance that only time gives, they clearly see that God has a plan for his people, that He's in the business of redemption, that He makes all things new. I hope my readers get that. Writing about it reminded me, too.
A few Christians have seemed a bit uncomfortable about this fantasy concept of time-surfing. But as Brother Greenfield says in Every Hill and Mountain, "Our God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Hallelujah! If he wants to give us a gift like that, he can.”
It's an amazing gift, all right. Except sometimes Abby and her friends learn more than they ever wanted to know about people from the past. Still, studying their lives of people teaches them about God's love and goodness in a new way. From the distance that only time gives, they clearly see that God has a plan for his people, that He's in the business of redemption, that He makes all things new. I hope my readers get that. Writing about it reminded me, too.