When the Man Comes Around

Spending fifteen or more hours in the car with a big family over the course of one weekend provides many opportunities for enjoyable things like sitting between Mom and Dad, playing tic-tac-toe, eating Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits, having speaker-phone conversations with brothers who are away at college, sleeping on each other's shoulders, laughing at our own family jokes, listening to audio books (like Elisabeth Elliot's Shadow of the Almighty) and singing along with the songs playing on the car's speakers. When you actually have a minute to listen to a song in silence (as opposed to listening while washing dishes) you sometimes think new thoughts that you have never thought before. At least, such was the case as I listened to Johnny Cash's, When the Man Comes Around, on our trip down to Gettysburg.

Grumbles against God often tend to maintain the complaint that if God existed, He would not allow evil to exist and prosper. Johnny Cash drives home the truth of the matter: God does not allow evil to exist and prosper. In fact, His judgment is a very great and terrible thing. It is just that God's timing is slightly different than ours. In our view, if God existed evil would be vanquished now. I think, however, that Cash cuts to the truth of the matter: when the Man comes around and evil is finally vanquished, it will be a day that we all plead for mercy and, oh, for very great grace.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin'.
Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.
Voices callin', voices cryin'.
Some are born an' some are dyin'.
It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come.