What do you know about cabooses? For some reason, I woke up early this morning, thinking about cabooses, punctuation, and Jesus’ Second Coming. I know that sounds strange. Hang on and see where this train takes me.
While growing up, I’d strain to see the caboose while waiting at a rail crossing, seeing it as a sign that the end of the train was coming. These were a manned safety feature of most trains until the 1980’s. They can still be seen on legacy trains like our own Skunk Train that crosses Mendocino County, even though they are more common in model trains.
Functional or not, we always watched for the caboose as a dramatic end to the train’s thundering, whistling magic. We might not focus on any number of interesting and colorful boxcars lumbering by, but “There’s the caboose!”
Writing experts among us might screech and complain about its misuse and abuse, but the exclamation point is the way we make a dramatic end to a statement that excites us. A period with vertical flair, An end with blast off potential! “I love you, oh, so much!” I say to my girls. BAM! A statement I want them to focus on. “This is important!” the exclamation point says. “Look here!”
My Bible tells me that Jesus is coming to pick up His friends one day soon. I am at peace, knowing that He’s coming for me. Yes, imperfect, messed up, failing me. Obviously not because of my perfection (there ain’t any),but because I belong to Him, period. I mean exclamation! With earthshaking sound and mind blowing graphics, He’ll come to mark the end of our time living apart!
“Look, I am coming soon! Revelation 22:12 NIV.
Now that deserves an exclamation point! While I am blessed with peace and strength and joy in the middle of the struggle and pain and loss we experience on this ailing planet, I know He plans much more for me, and soon!
Whether I think of it as a caboose or an exclamation point, it will be a dramatic end to this part of the journey and the victorious start of the next!