"Something So Beautiful" (2 Corinthians 12:3-4)

One of my favorite movies is “The Shawshank Redemption”. There are so many poignant moments in the film but one that stands out to me was an operatic interlude. Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, was insistent on having the state send funds and materials to build a prison library. After six years of letters, the state finally relents and sends Andy a check for $200 and a collection of records and books. Andy sifts through the records and finds a copy of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”. He puts it on the record player, listens for a few seconds, then turns on the prison’s PA system and allows the entire prison community to hear the opera. Everyone is stunned and Red, Andy’s best friend, played by Morgan Freeman, commented on the experience:

“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”

And I know such a man — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows — how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
2 Corinthians 12:3-4 (NKJV)

In this Bible passage, the Apostle Paul recounted his time when he was taken into Paradise. What he saw there was the unspeakable beauty and glory of Heaven and the presence of God. I can only imagine what he saw was... “something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it.”

If you have confessed your sins, truly repented, and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you, too, will experience the indescribable beauty and joy of Heaven that the Apostle Paul once witnessed. But it will not be for a brief moment, it will be for all eternity!

Won’t you place your trust in Jesus Christ? He is altogether beautiful and lovely and more precious than the finest gold or jewels. He is God, our Living Savior!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.