Kingdom of Summer

I've started to read Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle series again. This is a series set against a backdrop of Roman Britian and Celtic legend. To my way of thinking it's like "...what would it be like if King Arthur was a Christian...". It's a gripping read.

The first book, Taliesin touched my heart. There are passages that I read that makes me feel brighter, stronger, more noble, and gives me hope that walking this path in life really is worth it all in the end. Taliesin's vision of a future kingdom of peace sounds like a vision of heaven to me. The following quote is from book 2, where Charis is speaking the vision once again to their son Merlin:

There is a land shining with goodness, where a man's word is his pledge, and falsehood is banished, and children sleep in their mothers' arms and never know fear or pain. It is a land where kings extend their hands in justice rather than reach for the sword; where mercy, kindness and compassion flow like deep water over the land, and men revere virtue, revere truth, revere beauty, above comfort, pleasure or selfish gain. A land where peace reigns in the heart of man, where faith blazes like a beacon from every hill, and love like a fire from every hearth, where the True God is worshipped and his ways acclaimed by all ...

There is a golden realm of light, my son. And it is called the Kingdom of Summer.

(From Merlin, by Stephen Lawhead)

I long for a place like that.