Rediscovering Paul

IVP has listed our textbook (written by Capes, Reeves, and Richards) as a future release on their website. "Rediscovering Paul" is supposed to come out the end of October/beginning of November. Getting some good reviews. Looking forward to seeing what readers think. I'll be using it this Fall for Early Pauline Epistles.

Here's the link:
http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=2598

7/7/7

We were sitting on the beach in Maui and it dawned on me that we were enjoying the perfect day.

My beautiful wife by my side.

Our son and daughters reveling in the sand, surf, and sun.

Drip sand castles. Boogie boards. Paperback novels.

Rolling waves, indigo sea, clear blue skies, basaltic mountains, tropical flowers, distant islands.

Rest. Sabbath. Selah. Pause.

Breathe in, breathe out.

This is paradise.

Wait. No, it's not. This too shall pass. Even though I want this moment to be eternal, I know time marches on. Like the wind, I don't know why it moves on. But it always does. I can take a picture and try to capture the moment. Video tape may take me back vicariously to this perfect day, helping to preserve a memory. But, indeed, it's never the same. Even now, that blissful time dances in my mind like a dream, a vision, a recollection.

One day, time will be frozen. The eternal moment will be upon us. Paradise--like we've known only for a few moments in this beautiful world made by a God who is Beauty--it will be forever ours. Until then, whispers of what has been continue to push me forward to what will be.

He is Paradise. And, one day, I will be with Him, with my beautiful wife by my side, with our children reveling in the sea of His presence, and a clear vision of all that is Beauty and Goodness and Fun.

Oh God. What a day that will be.

The perfect day.