Chapter 17 – 2. The Forgiven World
Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no
fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here,
sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you
value like unto this, nor hold so dear. Nothing that you remember that made
your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the
happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You
will behold the beauty the Holy Spirit loves to look upon, and which he
thanks the Father for. He was created to see this for you, until you learned
to see it for yourself. And all his teaching leads to seeing it and giving
thanks with him.
Â
This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and
new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here,
for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the truth.
Â
The bridge between that world and this is so little and so easy to cross, that
you could not believe it is the meeting place of worlds so different. Yet this
little bridge is the strongest thing that touches on this world at all. This little
step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into
eternity, beyond all ugliness into beauty that will enchant you, and will
never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection.
Â
This step, the smallest ever taken, is still the greatest accomplishment of all
in God’s plan of Atonement. All else is learned, but this is given, complete
and wholly perfect. No one but him who planned salvation could complete
it thus. The real world, in its loveliness, you learn to reach. Fantasies are all
undone, and no one and nothing remain still bound by them, and by your
own forgiveness you are free to see. Yet what you see is only what you
made, with the blessing of your forgiveness on it. And with this final
blessing of God’s Son upon himself, the real perception, born of the new
perspective he has learned, has served its purpose.
Â
The stars will disappear in light, and the sun that opened up the world to
beauty will vanish. Perception will be meaningless when it has been
perfected, for everything that has been used for learning will have no
function. Nothing will ever change; no shifts nor shadings, no differences,
no variations that made perception possible will still occur. The perception
of the real world will be so short that you will barely have time to thank
God for it. For God will take the last step swiftly, when you have reached
the real world and have been made ready for him.
Â
The real world is attained simply by the complete forgiveness of the old, the
world you see without forgiveness. The great Transformer of perception
will undertake with you the careful searching of the mind that made this
world, and uncover to you the seeming reasons for your making it. In the
light of the real reason that he brings, as you follow him, he will show you
that there is no reason here at all. Each spot his reason touches grows alive
with beauty, and what seemed ugly in the darkness of your lack of reason is
suddenly released to loveliness. Not even what the Son of God made in
insanity could be without a hidden spark of beauty that gentleness could
release.
Â
All this beauty will rise to bless your sight as you look upon the world with
forgiving eyes. For forgiveness literally transforms vision, and lets you see
the real world reaching quietly and gently across chaos, removing all
illusions that had twisted your perception and fixed it on the past. The
smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder, and a blade of grass a sign of
God’s perfection.
Â
From the forgiven world the Son of God is lifted easily into his home. And
there he knows that he has always rested there in peace. Even salvation will
become a dream, and vanish from his mind. For salvation is the end of
dreams, and with the closing of the dream will have no meaning. Who,
awake in Heaven, could dream that there could ever be need of salvation?
Â
How much do you want salvation? It will give you the real world, trembling
with readiness to be given you. The eagerness of the Holy Spirit to give you
this is so intense he would not wait, although he waits in patience. Meet his
patience with your impatience at delay in meeting him. Go out in gladness
to meet with your Redeemer, and walk with him in trust out of this world,
and into the real world of beauty and forgiveness.
Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no
fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here,
sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you
value like unto this, nor hold so dear. Nothing that you remember that made
your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the
happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You
will behold the beauty the Holy Spirit loves to look upon, and which he
thanks the Father for. He was created to see this for you, until you learned
to see it for yourself. And all his teaching leads to seeing it and giving
thanks with him.
Â
This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and
new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here,
for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the truth.
Â
The bridge between that world and this is so little and so easy to cross, that
you could not believe it is the meeting place of worlds so different. Yet this
little bridge is the strongest thing that touches on this world at all. This little
step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into
eternity, beyond all ugliness into beauty that will enchant you, and will
never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection.
Â
This step, the smallest ever taken, is still the greatest accomplishment of all
in God’s plan of Atonement. All else is learned, but this is given, complete
and wholly perfect. No one but him who planned salvation could complete
it thus. The real world, in its loveliness, you learn to reach. Fantasies are all
undone, and no one and nothing remain still bound by them, and by your
own forgiveness you are free to see. Yet what you see is only what you
made, with the blessing of your forgiveness on it. And with this final
blessing of God’s Son upon himself, the real perception, born of the new
perspective he has learned, has served its purpose.
Â
The stars will disappear in light, and the sun that opened up the world to
beauty will vanish. Perception will be meaningless when it has been
perfected, for everything that has been used for learning will have no
function. Nothing will ever change; no shifts nor shadings, no differences,
no variations that made perception possible will still occur. The perception
of the real world will be so short that you will barely have time to thank
God for it. For God will take the last step swiftly, when you have reached
the real world and have been made ready for him.
Â
The real world is attained simply by the complete forgiveness of the old, the
world you see without forgiveness. The great Transformer of perception
will undertake with you the careful searching of the mind that made this
world, and uncover to you the seeming reasons for your making it. In the
light of the real reason that he brings, as you follow him, he will show you
that there is no reason here at all. Each spot his reason touches grows alive
with beauty, and what seemed ugly in the darkness of your lack of reason is
suddenly released to loveliness. Not even what the Son of God made in
insanity could be without a hidden spark of beauty that gentleness could
release.
Â
All this beauty will rise to bless your sight as you look upon the world with
forgiving eyes. For forgiveness literally transforms vision, and lets you see
the real world reaching quietly and gently across chaos, removing all
illusions that had twisted your perception and fixed it on the past. The
smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder, and a blade of grass a sign of
God’s perfection.
Â
From the forgiven world the Son of God is lifted easily into his home. And
there he knows that he has always rested there in peace. Even salvation will
become a dream, and vanish from his mind. For salvation is the end of
dreams, and with the closing of the dream will have no meaning. Who,
awake in Heaven, could dream that there could ever be need of salvation?
Â
How much do you want salvation? It will give you the real world, trembling
with readiness to be given you. The eagerness of the Holy Spirit to give you
this is so intense he would not wait, although he waits in patience. Meet his
patience with your impatience at delay in meeting him. Go out in gladness
to meet with your Redeemer, and walk with him in trust out of this world,
and into the real world of beauty and forgiveness.