No "Examination Copy" of this Book

As a teacher, I often get sent what are known as "desk copies" or "examination copies" of new text books being published in my field. Publishers send out these free copies in hopes that teachers everywhere will adopt the new book as a class text, thereby boosting sales of the books. They're free samples, letting the instructors examine the new text (hence the name, examination copy), view the features, and compare it to the textbook currently in use in a particular course.

After many years of teaching, the new editions seem to multiply on my bookshelf, and at the end of the semester, I'll often put some of these samples in a box outside my office. I tape a FREE sign on the box and within a couple of days, maybe even a couple of hours, some students have gone away happy with a new book, and I have some room cleared on my bookshelf.

It's a good thing, isn't it, that God has not offered an "examination copy" of the Lamb's Book of Life. We get no chance to check it out and see whose name is there and whose isn't. When we get to Heaven, we're going to look around and maybe there will be some surprises. Some people we were sure were going to be there will be conspicuous by their absence; on the other hand, our jaws may drop when we recognize those we thought were destined for somewhere where we were sure we weren't going to be.

Of course, we are called to holy living, and we can judge the tree by its fruit, but beyond that, we can only declare what God has done for us and in us, not what He hasn't done for someone else. For it's only God who knows the heart . . . and there's no examination copy of the Lamb's Book.