Portends of eschatological bliss

It's funny how the most unexpected things fill me with intense and ineluctable joy. I just finished playing Mario Galaxy, and at the end everything is reborn unto new life. You might think me sentimental for finding elements of deep goodness in a Mario game, but I demur. Goodness sneaks up on us in the most unlikely of places, including video games. The joy that I feel is that joy I remember as a child: deep, abiding happiness. It's also the same joy I felt when I first became a child of God: adoption, newness, "Abba, Father." The only difference is that my mature joy is tinged with a touch of sadness because of the brokenness and fallenness of the world that yet remains and with which I have become intimately acquainted. Yet this won't last, and in the end joy will win when God wipes every tear from our eyes. All of these things are portends of eschatological bliss, tastings of the joy to come when God finally sets everything right in His creation.

"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." -- Revelation 21:5