The message of the book of Revelation has proven itself to be relevant once again as the world faces its current apparent pandemic crisis.

But the message is not what you might think. Years of enduring the fearful forecasts of the end of the world by end-times misinterpreters of the last book of the Bible have caused us to overlook its real message.

“You’ve got an agenda!” Once or twice I’ve had that comment thrown at me as if there were something wrong about coming into a meeting with a set of convictions or a plan to do something with those convictions.

Our agendas, of course, no matter how sincere they are, always have their self-centred flaws. But that is not the case with God.

What kind of parents would refuse to let their kids grow up? What kind of parents would try to keep their kids in a dependent state even when they have grown up?

We would instantly recognize that as highly dysfunctional behaviour. When it occurs, which from time time it does, we would see it as producing a very dysfunctional family.

I am progressing toward the end of my natural life.  Don’t get alarmed, I’ve still got a few miles left in me yet.  But the end is a lot closer than the beginning.

When you are looking at a far-off horizon, you really can’t see very much.  You can imagine what it may look like, but you’re not sure.  Sometimes as you draw nearer, objects turn out to be something completely different than what you imagined in the distance.

Some of the hardest but most fruitful times in life involve transition.

Think of leaving home, going off to college, getting your first job, moving to a strange city, getting married, buying a house, having kids, changing jobs, buying a bigger house, raising your kids to be adults, buying a smaller house, retiring, stepping down from a place of leadership, moving to where your kids are or where the sun shines, leaving your house behind and buying a condo, looking after grandkids and getting ready to move one last time into a retirement residence.