God’s intent has always been to live in relationship with us. Why this should be so is beyond our ability to comprehend, but it is plainly taught through every story in the Bible.
God values relationships. When Jesus was asked to sum up the entire message of the Bible, He said it was all about having a right relationship with God and rightly relating to other people (Mt 22.34-40). It’s important to remember that the two are so entwined that they cannot be separated. In eternity, we will not only be living as individuals in relationship with our Heavenly Father, we’ll be living among others as part of the community of the redeemed.
We would be wise to ponder the idea that many of the people we will live with there are people we have the opportunity to live with here. It seems odd that we might suddenly begin to value them when we meet them in eternity if we have not valued them here. Perhaps beginning to do so is part of the ultimate sanctification. Perhaps we should begin practicing now what will be reality then.
It is also clear from the end of the Bible Story that God values comfort. Not the kind of comfort we think of as laziness and leisure, God is shown comforting His people, especially those who have endured pain and sadness. As His agents on this old earth, as those who actively seek to bring a portion of eternity into the here and now, we should be about the same business of comforting those who grieve. Those who have been hard-pressed and downtrodden in this world finally find rest in God’s presence.
God values people from every nation. So should we.
God values every language. So should we.
God values diversity. As hard as this is for some of us to hear, so should we.
God’s new city is remarkably designed with its cubic architecture and its tree-lined streets. There is room for all of God’s children in their new home. And the design is both new and traditional at the same time. It is new in the sense that nothing like it has ever been conceived before; it is traditional in all the ways it gives honour to things like the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. Its very name implies the new and old coming together, New Jerusalem.
As in the very first story, we also see that God loves creativity. His new city has a remarkable design that goes beyond merely functional. It’s beautiful and complex. Whether its gates are actually made of pearls or the city itself made of gold, God clearly intends for us to know that it will be a place of beauty and wonder, complexity and whimsy.
Creativity. Order and design. Diversity. Rest. People. Community. These are the priorities of God’s heart as it is revealed in the first two chapters of the Bible. Amazingly, the very same priorities are revealed in the last two chapters of the Bible.
Are they ours as well?
Prayer
Your creation is a magnificent unity in diversity, profound in wisdom, awesome in understanding, marvellous in purpose and rich in elegance. You revel in variety, subtlety, intricacy, information and beauty. All things work together in both the physical and spiritual realms. I thank You for creating and calling me to become conformed to the image of Your Son, and I pray for the grace of holy desire to pursue by Your power what You have called me to become in Christ. I thank You for friendships and alliances with likeminded people, and I am grateful for the manifold gifts and ministries in the Body of Christ. Give me a growing heart for Your people so that I will be embedded in others-centered community as a lover and servant of the people You love.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
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