Lost in Time and Space

Watching the last few minutes of repeat of the Lost finale Saturday evening, I picked up on a line that changed my perception of the “flash sideways” world and the island. When Jack is talking with his father, Christian says, “There is no now.” He goes on to explain that in the “flash sideways” world, there is no time factor. Those represented there may already have died or will die, but they are there nonetheless.

If we buy this point of view, then the island was “real” (despite all its mysticism and magic) and was the stage upon which Jack and the other castaways played out their journeys of redemption. This also means that Kate, Claire, and Sawyer escaped the island to live on in the “real world” even though they were present in the “flash sideways” world.

Here again, I do not believe that the writers of Lost are orthodox Christians, but this world that they crated to exist alongside ours is very much what Christians expect in heaven—reunion with loved ones without the scars of life or the ravages of age. We are bound to others by relationships and those relationships survive this life.

A lesson for believers is that we are inexorably bound to those we encounter in this world. We have a bond to those we have loved and those who have loved us. We are connected to those we helped in this world as well as those we failed to help or rejected. We are also bound to God’s people through Jesus Christ, our common link.

Perhaps the final gathering in the last episode of Lost was a glorified cast party for those the writers really liked, but it did give a taste of what I hope Heaven will be like.

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