In an essay published in 1947, author J. R. R. Tolkein coined a new word: eucatastrophe. It means “a sudden, joyous turn of events.” He said that the incarnation of Jesus Christ was the eucatastrophe of human history. It was “an unexpected but not unpredictable conclusion” of a great drama.


The apostle Paul explains in detail a sudden, joyous turn of events – a eucatastrophe! – that will come at the end of this world to those of us who have believed in Jesus Christ. In the twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed. Our human minds cannot even begin to comprehend what those changes will be. A little boy I know who is legally blind was excited to hear that in heaven he would not need his glasses, but then lamented that without them he wouldn’t be able to see. How like him we are in our thoughts…limited about the magnitude of the joyous changes God will work in us in the last.


Mercifully, He is transforming our lives even now, changing us moment by moment to make us more like Him!