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In
the book Twenty Minutes of Reality Margaret Montague described her
first day outdoors after a serious illness. It happened to be a gray March
day marked by the dregs of winter: leafless trees, half-melted piles of
snow. But this very ordinary scene was transformed in her eyes. She wrote
of beholding life for the first time in all its loveliness, its unspeakable
joy, beauty and importance. Thats the way it will be when we
enter that heavenly Garden of Eden. Not only the beauties of the world,
but also our capacity to absorb them will be greatly intensified. It will
seem like that first day outdoors after a very long illness. And the first
twenty minutes of reality will extend into a magical eternity.
Do you enjoy experiencing new things? Learning? Creating? Some might imagine
that life in a perfect environment wont be very stimulating after
a while. In time even the greatest vacations get tiring. We cant imagine
that there will be any great problems to solve or challenges to overcome
in heaven. What will keep us going? But again, its our imagination,
not life in paradise, thats undersized. Note this statement by Christian
author Ellen White: There, immortal minds will contemplate with never
failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming
love. . . . Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The
acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies.
There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations
reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new
heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh
objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body. All the treasures
of the universe will be open to the study of Gods redeemed.The
Great Controversy (Nampa, Idaho; Pacific Press Publishing Association,
1950), page 677.
 
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