Nowhere in Scripture are we given a complete and comprehensive description of heaven. At best, we get little glimpses or vignettes of its grandeur. As we read these brief accounts, we recognize they are visionary, symbolic, figurative, and filled with human imagery. We couldn’t understand it otherwise. Heaven is utterly new, transcendent.
Revelation 21-22 offers a series of these visionary glimpses: A new heaven and earth (21.1), no sea (21.1), a new Jerusalem (21.2), no tears, no death, no sorrow, no crying, no pain (21.4), no sun or moon (21.23), a river of life (22.1), a tree of life (22.2) - just to mention a few.
I can hardly wait to be there! And you?
However, as I was reading Ephesians in my daily devotions, it struck me I don’t have to wait for the New Jerusalem or streets of gold because God has “seated us with [Christ] in the heavenly realms” [2.6].
By the way, the greatest aspect of heaven is not the “stuff” heaven is made of. Rather, it is the presence of God. Every time we worship, it is a brief taste of being in His presence. “Oh what a foretaste of glory divine” the old hymn says!
The next time you gather for public worship, keep that in mind. You are “entering His gates” — the glorious presence of the Sovereign of the universe, God almighty.
And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. Revelation 21.23
No comments:
Post a Comment