fortunately

A confession:

I very much enjoy fortune cookies. Eating them, reading them, laughing at them. I even tried making them once when I was a teenager. Forgot about that disaster.

Most of the time, I throw the "fortunes" out and just savor the crunchy vanilla goodness of the cookie...but every now and then I run across a gem and a half of a fortune.

Tonight's was a tosser—or so I thought until I let it sink in. I had to dig into the trash to get it back:


"All the troubles you have will pass away very quickly."

My first instinct was pshaw. Whatever. My troubles have been around a while and they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

But then it sunk in. And I realized that it is true. It didn't say "soon," it said "very quickly."

Either when Christ comes to claim His bride, or when He calls me home to Him, my troubles will be gone in an instant. Very quickly. I will see Him face to face, be in His presence, and all of the troubles and sin and worry and heartache of this life will pass away.

This is something I have thought of so much in the past several years. I think I even started to write a poem or song or something...talking about how it will all fall away at His feet. The things we think matter so much here and now...I don't think we'll even remember those things when we are given our first glimpse of the full glory of the Lord Jesus.

I just recently listened to C.S. Lewis' novel Till We Have Faces and there were some great quotes in there. Perhaps I can find them later and add them.

edit: this is the quote I was thinking of:

I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?