The Light in Our Eyes: Rediscovering the Love, Beauty, and Freedom of Jesus in an Age of Disillusionment

by Nicholas McDonald

Growing up, I thought God wanted everyone to go to His party, called heaven, because He was vaguely mad at all of us for enjoying earth too much. So, I figured we all just kind of had to deal with God not liking our world, and if we wanted to get on His good side, we had to at least pretend to want to go to this magical play place He created called heaven. Don’t get me wrong; heaven was…fine. It was like earth, except that there was no television or macaroni and cheese, and there was nothing to do except sing in a long trance always, all the time, and if someone asked how my day was going, I might say, “Well, I’m just sort of floating around today. And you?” “Yeah, I’m floating around, just like I do always, all the time.” “Cool, cool, cool. I’ve got a float-around with Noah at three. I was going to ask him about the dinosaurs.” “Oh gosh, don’t even. He’s so sick of answering that one. I’ll give you my notes. Choir’s about to start!”