Hi everyone,
There is a wonderful section from the book of Hebrews that unfolds a long list of faithful people who have lives important lives and shown just what happens when we place God’s love at the heart of our life. “By faith” all these people who have gone before us lived, and loved, and God was there. And then it ends with “So then, if we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” let us live our own lives with love at the center…
As we come to the final week of our exploration of the book of Revelation, we come to the ending sequence of visions, and it is a beautiful thing. We enter the vision of the heavenly city, and the glorious vision of all things as God would have them be, with the tree of life and the river of life that nourishes all creation. There is a good reason this is the last book of the bible and this is the final vision.
Most often this is cast in the future… someday. Like the world is not how it should be but someday it will be. That gives us something to commit to, work towards, hope for. But there is another way to look at it that makes it much more immediate. Maybe the people who have gone before us in faith are not off in some far away or future home, but maybe we are truly surrounded by them. Maybe that vision is not just for another time and another place, but somehow present, and rather than hope for it in the future, our practice is to let that beautiful vision infiltrate our lives here and now.
I know. Its kind of a mind-bender, but imagine if we thought of Highlands as a place where the vision could come alive, be revealed. What if we were called to be the revelation? Imagine that! Come together on Sunday for the grand finale of Revelation, and celebrate the call to be a revelation.
See you then.
Will