REVELATION 21–22
The Story began with God creating a place. Out of nothingness, He spoke and earth was formed. From that earth, He fashioned a Garden more beautiful than anything we’ve been able to create since. Into that Garden, He placed a man and, shortly thereafter, a woman. Their lives were full of meaning and purpose, void of frustration and fear.
But it didn’t last long.
You know the story by now. Sin entered the world and wreaked havoc and destruction. Violence and anxiety, turmoil and tumult — these things have characterised human existence since the events recorded in the third chapter of the Bible Story, punctuated here and there with glimpses of a better way. Like previews of a coming attraction, these scenes are short and designed to whet our appetites for the day of its glorious appearing.
Then it happens. God sovereignly moves and begins recreating a new heaven and a new earth. Nothing gets in His way, and nothing can bring a stop to what He has initiated. Evil is consigned to destruction forever so that it can have no influence in this New Creation. Human history as we know it is brought to a conclusion, and those whom God has redeemed from every culture and generation eagerly await what He has in store.
And what He has in store does not disappoint. It’s new and amazingly different, but also strangely familiar (it’s earth, after all). It is not people with halos and white robes floating on clouds and strumming harps. It is not an endless church service. There is nothing static about what God does. It’s dynamic. It’s breathtaking. It’s better than anything we could ask for or imagine.
It’s a city nearly the size of the United States of America, except it’s a perfect cube. On the old earth, there were specifically designated holy places, the new earth is a holy place. On the old earth, there were pockets into which the glory of God periodically broke through, the new earth is filled with His glory. It is a magnificent city filled with the radiance of God’s greatness.
This city is inhabited by people with bodies that are not subject to ageing, sickness or death. These bodies have minds that are untainted by the effects of sin and impure motives or thoughts. And the people are innumerable. They are amazingly diverse and yet unified by one constant — the shared access they have to the throne of God.
Like Adam and Eve in the very first story, God’s redeemed will once again live in unbroken intimacy with Him, with each other and with the world around them. It will be an idyllic existence.
How great will that be?
Prayer
O Lord my God, You are exalted above all things we can conceive and imagine. Time and space are a part of Your created order—You brought them into being, and You dwell in all times and places. You are the eternal Now, the great I AM, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. You are present everywhere and You rule all things from the microcosm to the macrocosm. You spoke, and energy and matter came into being. Your boundless power and wisdom are evident in Your works, and all things derive their being from You. The beauty, radiance and wisdom that abound in Your creation all point beyond themselves to You, their Creator and Sustainer. I ask for the eyes to see Your goodness, beauty and truth as I behold plants, trees, animals, insects, sunrises and sunsets, landscapes and the starry sky.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
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