He placed the Bible down and began to ponder the meaning of what he had just read in the Book of Daniel. There emerged in his imagination, on the one hand, the great promise of salvation for those who have been faithful to God's covenant. On the other was the punishment of sinners, and with it, disturbing descriptions of catastrophe.
He first imagined what it would be like to actually see his name and the names of his loved ones written into Daniel's "Book of Salvation." He imagined the absolute elation of what it would be like to know for certain that eternal bliss awaited him and those closest to him. But then his mind drifted to the other part of what Daniel's vision imagines: the destruction of the earth. All at once, a sense of loss and sadness surprised him, and he imagined asking God:
"Lord, out of the great chaos, didn't you look upon the formless mass, grasp it, and with your potter's hands, shape it into a perfect sphere? With broad strokes of your artist's brush, didn't you paint it in radiant color? And didn't you then take the sphere gently into your hands and carefully start it on its maiden voyage, traveling forward so smoothly that never would there be felt on earth even the slightest bump or hint of turbulence as your magnificent, favored planet proceeded on its journey? And millennia later, didn't astronauts stare out in awe at the same sphere, sending back to the world a stunning picture of "the blue and white marble"?
"Is it possible, Lord that you would someday destroy this beautiful planet crafted by your own hands?
"If it is true, it must be true also that, when you contemplate destroying what you have so painstakingly and lovingly created, you must feel great sadness and regret....
