Revelation 21:5

“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new.'”

We begin reading chapter 21 with a mixture of awe and “Can it be?” A new heaven, new earth, no more sea, God dwelling among mankind, no more death, no more crying!  “Can it be?”

To deal with the present realities it is good to back up and see the entire picture, from beginning to the end.  As I see it, this revelation given to John is exactly that. Chapter 21 describes, in word pictures, what is and what lies ahead.

It is hard for us human beings to allow our thinking to be captured by the Spirit of the Lord. Even John, who knew in great detail what was happening in the seven churches he served, he needed a new way to see things. Those “details” need to fit into a new framework of faith and knowledge.

A good, open readiness to look at life in a new way is a singular blessing, indeed.  God knows it is not easy.  I think that is one of the reasons, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold I am making everything new.’  Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.  He said to me, ‘It is done, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.'”

For me, writing something down makes it mine, so to speak.  Let’s say it is clear in my mind and heart but often quite fleeting, buoyed one moment and dampened the next according to how I am feeling.  When I write it down that tends to make it more permanent, more unchangeable .

Because of John’s obedience to the voice to write it down, we, today, two thousand years or 6,000 generations later, hear the truth as it were just reveled, today! Thank you, John, for your faithfulness to writing it down.  What a blessing.

I am 87. Many thoughts push themselves into my mind these days.  Some of these thoughts, maybe almost all, are reflecting my “old world.”  The Spirit of God lifts my eyes to see “all things new,” all subsumed in the light of God’s mercy and grace – “It is finished. Behold, I make all things new.”  That is for even for me and for my thought processes.