Tiffany,
Yep, Armageddon came and went at the end of the 20th century. After all it was the Creator's Promise, just like all those Awake magazines said, sure 'nuff! Now, here we are in paradise...
Of course, paradise has been a bit of a disappointment at times. I don't want to grouse, but I fully expected my kids to be playing with lions and all that. But that sort of thing wasn't promised to ALL of us, you know. Hey, go read your Isaiah if you don't believe me!
That suck-up-goody-two-shoes-elder's kid down the way, now HE'S got wolves and leopards and a maned young lion and HE goes traipsing around with the bloody lot of them in tow like he's leader over them all or some such crap. MY kids? They got a stinkin' cobra in a hole.
Sure it was pretty impressive first time they put their hand over the cobra hole and nothin', and I mean absolutely nothin' happened. But really, how many times is a weaned young child going to get a charge out of covering up the light aperature of a venomous snake? It gets old pretty quick, I can tell you.
I should've figured the real paradise would be like this, a reflection of the old spiritual paradise we had back in our congregations before the big-A. Can't say I wasn't warned about that. Maybe I should have reached out more.
But, thankful for small blessings, right?
Eric