Written by Scott B. Hayashi
Revelation 14:1a (NRSV) Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion!
We close our time together in the company of John on Patmos. I imagine him both alone and lonesome. The life that he knew is over.
Without his community, he is adrift, yet it is under these circumstances that he has his visions and is enraptured with the sights and sounds of heaven. Is he near the end of the world or simply the end of his life? Do the visions come because his grip on this life has been loosened? Or are his visions the gift of exile?
I think of Stephen in Acts, as he is faced by the angry mob, turning his eyes toward heaven and praying for his soul and the souls of those who are in the process of stoning him. Neither John nor Stephen is saved from his time of trial. Yet the mercy of God is present to them in their final moments. Job, a kindred spirit to John and Stephen and you and me, says, “After my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26). And so will we. Thanks be to God.
Join more than a half million readers worldwide who use Forward Day by Day as a resource for daily prayer and Bible study.
No comments:
Post a Comment