"Ancient words ever true"

In my spare time, I’ve been watching you tube videos of someone playing the video game “Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.” I haven’t seen the entirety of the game yet, but at least so far anyway, I submit that it’s one of the better installments in the Zelda series. In the game, Link (the hero of the story), Zelda (the heroine and longtime friend of Link), and many others live on an island suspended midair above the clouds called Skyloft. They’ve all grown up on this island. In Skyloft, the notion of a world below the clouds is relegated to legends and fables.

However, Zelda soon discovers that a world really does exist under the clouds when she is swept into this world because of a tornado. Link resolves to find her. With the help of a mysterious new friend and travelling companion known as Fi, Link is able to travel through a rift in the clouds to get to the land below. I thought this was an interesting premise to a video game.

I was fascinated by a particular scene: the first time Link descends to the surface, he is soon met by a character named Gorko. He regales Link with how he has read “ancient texts” about people who “actually live on this sky island…the residents…live in a perfect society, totally free of conflict or unhappiness! Not only that, but…their civilization is way, way more advanced than ours down here.” He goes on to mention that the island is “filled with wonders we do not have here. Their buildings are made of gold.” He then speaks of a stream of water in Skyloft that makes you live forever, and trees that have fruit that cures you from all diseases.

What he is describing sounds fantastic. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is, Gorko is completely wrong about Skyloft. It is not a utopia. There isn’t an absence of conflict or unhappiness; the buildings aren’t made of gold; there isn’t water that makes you live forever, and so on. It’s not that Skyloft is an unpleasant place to live by any means, it’s just not a utopian sort of place. Link grew up there. He could have said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but what you are describing just isn’t accurate.”  But he chose not to burst his bubble.

As I contemplated this scene, it occurred to me that one could say that Gorko was reading the wrong “ancient text.” His text was erroneous; conversely, the Bible is filled with “ancient words ever true” (as the song “Ancient Words” puts it). It speaks of the wonders of a utopia which is awaiting those of us who have a right relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.

Revelation 21 tells us that there will come a day when “the dwelling of God [will be] with men, and he will live with them…He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4). This is a promise from the Word of God. Someone might claim that this sounds too good to be true. I love this quote from Dwight L. Moody; he said, “God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”

Kevin