Creative Writing Exercise “7x7x7”

I found this great list of ideas for creative writing prompts. The first one on the list is called 7x7x7. Here are the rules:

Find the 7th book from your bookshelf (or digital library). Open it up to page 7. Look at the 7th sentence on the page. Begin a paragraph that begins with that sentence and limit the length to 7 lines. Repeat. Read them out and choose the one with the most promise.

It so happened that my seventh book in my Kindle library was a book called Heaven by Randy Alcorn—seems fitting for this exercise. The only modification was that I went opened page seven in chapter seven as opposed to the seventh page of the book.

Here goes…

Given our improved minds and clear thinking, our memory should be more— not less— acute concerning our life on Earth.

Here are my additions…

Our minds will have a greater capacity for knowing, thinking, remembering, reasoning and so forth, but consider Revelation 21:4 in light of what Jesus will do for those who mourn: “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.” This has a connotation of Jesus giving those who have loved ones lost forever in hell the grace of divine forgetfulness. I envision Will Smith’s character James Darrell Edwards III’s “flashy thingy”, in the movie Men in Black, erasing memories to the overexposed… for emotional purposes, of course. 

Alcorn, Randy. Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations 1462-1464). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.