Earth Metaphors

Most of you know that I love Christian music. And if you don't know me personally, you perhaps could at least tell by the title of my blog (which is also the title of a Bebo Norman song.

But this past Sunday night we were singing a hymn I've sung dozens of times before: Won't it be Wonderful There. At the end of the first verse there is a curious metaphor for what Earth is (or will be): "The Story-Land." One day, we're all going to be in Heaven & Earth will be a place we tell stories about. The Story-land. What an interesting thought ...

I've noticed some other metaphors before in Contemporary Christian Music. There was a group named LaRue whose one-hit-wonder was a nice little diddy called "Waiting Room." The premise of the song is that our life on Earth is like an extended wait in a doctor's waiting room. When you go to the doctor, the waiting room is not all their is. Eventually, you make it in, and the waiting room is but a passing thought. It was but a momentary inconvenience.

There's another metaphor that is in one of my favorite Bebo Norman songs. It's a eulogistic song about the death of a woman who was close to him. The name of the song is "Rita." Bebo takes a sort of "Fallen Earth" view of the world with a chorus that says, "It was not your time ... that's a useless line ... a fallen world ... took your life." And at the end of his song, he's committing his beloved Rita to God:

So take her tender to Your table
Take her from this killing floor
To taste the water that is forever
Let her be thirsty no more

I find that line "killing floor" fascinating. It's an interesting description of a place where so many bad things happen. While life and the Earth itself are gifts from God, our human nature has tarnished so much of life and has allowed death to prevail. Killing Floor.

Anybody have any other creative sayings or thoughts that lend a different perspective on how we look at our existence on this side of life?