Monday, April 16, 2018

Carl F. H. Henry's "Greatest Treasure"

* The following is from the ending of Carl F. H. Henry's Confessions of a Theologian: A Autobiography (1986).  He is dreaming that he is being interviewed by his son.

"Your greatest treasure?" he asked.

"Family aside," I said, "I'd begin with Scripture... the most read book of my life.  And communion with God... waiting before God. I have done less waiting than working, and my works would have been better had I waited more.  But I have enjoyed God's incomparable companionship.  I have been blessed with wonderful friends--none more fantastic than Helga, your mother--and have spent long and happy hours with them.  But my deepest memories are those spent waiting before God, often praying for others, and not least of all for you and your sister, sometimes waiting before him in tears, sometimes in joy, sometimes wrestling alternatives, sometimes just worshipping him in adoration.  Heaven will be an unending feast for the soul that basks in his presence.  And it will be brighter because some will be there whom I brought to Jesus, and others whom I encouraged to become pastors and missionaries and teachers, or to invest their God-entrusted gifts in other constructive careers.  The tides of history that seem to us so all-important and all-consuming in this lifetime will fade overnight into a vast panorama in which Christ and not modern celebrities will hold center-stage.  It is Christ alone who will give unending meaning to a future that will become and remain ever present."