This week, I was sort of relying on our daughter to write out a book review for Tuck Everlasting. She loved it, as you will see (below!) but it was much shorter than I had wanted. With everything going on this weekend for our family, she never got a chance to spruce it up a bit.
But the LORD brought to mind how important this week we currently are in is. He also reminded me about a few things related to this week and the book. So I guess God’s plans are better than mine.
Passion week
This week marks Passion Week for Believers around the world. The week where Christ went into the city of Jerusalem, fully aware of what God was calling Him to do. He knew and even told His disciples explicitly what He was facing and going to do (Matthew 20:17 – 19). And you know what they did? It’s like what He said went completely over their heads and two of them (the sons of Zebedee) actually had their mother ask Jesus if they could rule with Him (Matthew 20:20 – 28). I mean, how clueless can you get?
And then God reminded me, how clueless can I be?
Hindsight is 20/20
It’s so easy to see the faults and gaffs of the disciples because we have the benefit of hindsight. They couldn’t see the horror of the impending Friday ahead of them. And then of course, there was Saturday. The least talked about day in Scripture. I can only assume the disciples would have had no idea what to do on that Saturday. It must have been the longest day of their lives. They were probably desperately mulling over what happened the day before and scared to death of the following day, let alone weeks, months, and years.
But Sunday was coming.
Sunday
Without Sunday, as Paul would say, we would be a people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19). But praise God, we have hope because of Sunday. We have hope of not only forgiveness of our sins but also of eternal life with Christ.
Which brings me to Tuck Everlasting. Obviously, it’s just a fun story, but the concept of eternal life is one that has been contemplated since the beginning of time. Life with no end. That sounds amazing – sort of.
Life with no end without Jesus sounds like a nightmare. To continue to live in a deteriorating world of sin with no escape sounds a whole lot like hell. But what we have to look forward to is nothing like that. It’s better than we can ever imagine, and more beautiful than words can describe.
So although there is so much heaviness right now in the world around us, I praise God we can take heart that we are “Believers Everlasting.” We have hope because of what the LORD did. So although we face Friday as well as the fear and trepidation of Saturday, Sunday is coming. Praise the LORD, Sunday is coming.
And here’s my now 12 year old daughter’s book review (Happy birthday to her!):
BOOK REVIEW of Tuck Everlasting
I personally loved Tuck Everlasting. It was exciting and I could barely put down the book. It was fun, adventurous, heartfelt, and happy. It was one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I would definitely read it again.
The story is about Winnie finding a magical spring. This spring is full of water that never makes you older or younger. Once you drink from it, you stay the same age forever. Jessie, Miles, Mae, and Tuck – The other main characters who are all family – have already drunk from that well. They have to kidnap Winnie to be able to explain everything and then make sure that she doesn’t tell anyone. They warn Winnie of the dangers of others finding out. They also made sure she knew how lonely and alone she might feel.
My favorite part was when Mae protected Winnie from a man who was going to ‘use’ Winnie for demonstrations for the water. Mae had pulled up the shotgun to protect Winnie, even if that meant she had to go to jail. The Tuck family were Winnie’s friends and she was theirs.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves stories about friendship and loyalty. It displays life’s hard decisions and shows how Winnie – the main character – makes them.
