River of Life

The condition of a river reflects very much on the area around it.

A river full of shopping trolleys is not going to house many fish and other aquatic life.  But a nice clean river, with good flow will make a river flourish.

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 (CEV)

¹⁰ Then with the help of the Spirit, he took me to the top of a very high mountain. There he showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down from God in heaven.

²² I did not see a temple there. The Lord God All-Powerful and the Lamb were its temple. ²³ And the city did not need the sun or the moon. The glory of God was shining on it, and the Lamb was its light.

²⁴ Nations will walk by the light of that city, and kings will bring their riches there. ²⁵ Its gates are always open during the day, and night never comes. ²⁶ The glorious treasures of nations will be brought into the city. ²⁷ But nothing unworthy will be allowed to enter. No one who is dirty-minded or who tells lies will be there. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will be in the city.

22 The angel showed me a river that was crystal clear, and its waters gave life. The river came from the throne where God and the Lamb were seated. ² Then it flowed down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river are trees that grow a different kind of fruit each month of the year. The fruit gives life, and the leaves are used as medicine to heal the nations.

³ God’s curse will no longer be on the people of that city. He and the Lamb will be seated there on their thrones, and its people will worship God ⁴ and will see him face to face. God’s name will be written on the foreheads of the people. ⁵ Never again will night appear, and no one who lives there will ever need a lamp or the sun. The Lord God will be their light, and they will rule forever.

The river flowing through the City of Jerusalem is crystal clear.  Its waters are to give life.  And as if to prove that along either side of the river are trees growing and producing fruit.  The fruit from those trees also give life.  This city is about giving life.

I mentioned last week about God Making New.  That however bad things have got God can turn them around and do something different.  I’m sure I’ve also mentioned before about when my life fell apart.  Strangely enough, my unravelling was brought about to a large degree by someone inadvertently throwing away a clay model I had made.  That model was of a tree.  Not a luscious and full of life tree like those mentioned here, but a wizened and dried up tree – all branches and dead wood.  That tree had come to represent where I was and how I felt, and for someone to throw even that away, felt like total destruction of my life and it’s value.

However, it was also from that point, slowly, very slowly, that I began to understand that it had to go for a reason.  That only from that point of utter desolation absolute pain could healing begin.  And very, very carefully the river of water of life began to nourish me and feed me, and a different life could be born.  The only thing I had to bring to God was my brokenness, but that was enough.  That was the seed from which a new tree, a fruitful tree could grow – fed and watered by him.

Life has taken some interesting turns since then.  Certainly physically I am more broken than I might have thought possible then, but God continues to bring his life and light and healing in ways I don’t always notice, but are nevertheless real and life-giving.

God has not finished with any of us yet.  There is still healing work to be done.

So the image of a tree growing strongly and fruiting is a very powerful and meaningful one to me.  This passage takes us to a promise and a hope for us all – In that city will be water, life and light – for that is where God is.  Restoring us, healing us, refreshing us, completing us.

The picture I have is of sitting by that crystal clear river, whose waters give life, dangling my feet in.  Receiving refreshment and nourishment.  Basking in the light of God.

Thank you Lord
that however things are
you promise us life
and light
and healing,
watered and fed by your life
and your presence.

Lord
may I remember always to plant my roots in you
and allow you to heal me,
restore me,
refresh me
and grow in me

Making New

Regeneration is a buzz word and concept in our time.  Taking somewhere that was derelict and restoring it to use again.

Being originally from Sheffield, an example that springs to mind, love it or loathe it, is Meadowhall, a mecca to the god of retail, built on a site previously occupied by steelworks.

Richard Bird [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

In the early 1980s much of Sheffield, and the lives of the people there, were decimated by the closure of many of the steelworks, played out in realistic fashion in the film The Full Monty.

This was very much a part of my formative years.  But Meadowhall has replaced that.  From an awful time in the life of a city and it’s inhabitants, and the ruins of a city and a workforce, has come something new.  A huge shopping centre may not be much replacement for jobs for men used to working in heavy industrial labour, but it is at least doing  something for the economy of that area.  From the death of steel, some new life has come.  From distress has come opportunity.  The area is unrecognisable from the ghost town of empty industry it had become.

None of this comes anything close to what God can and will do, but it gives a bit of an idea.  Because God is making all things new.

Revelation 21:1-6

The New Heaven and the New Earth

21 I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and so had the sea. ² Then I saw New Jerusalem, that holy city, coming down from God in heaven. It was like a bride dressed in her wedding gown and ready to meet her husband.

³ I heard a loud voice shout from the throne:

God’s home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. ⁴ He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.

⁵ Then the one sitting on the throne said:

I am making everything new. Write down what I have said. My words are true and can be trusted. ⁶ Everything is finished! I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give water from the life-giving fountain to everyone who is thirsty.

This has long been a favourite passage of mine.  It is a beautiful vision, and speaks to me of hope and peace.

This is heaven – not God sitting on some fluffy cloud playing his harp, but God coming to live with his people.  And not just live with us, but wiping all tears from our eyes.  I can just picture God coming, putting his arm around me, and making everything better.  All the pain; all the tears; all the sorrows; all the losses; all those things that no one else could put right, however much they wanted to – not brushed under the carpet, but taken by God and dealt with forever.  And the promise that there will be no more.

Whatever has happened in our lives – God is going to make something new – that is his promise.  Not a repair, not a patch, something entirely new.  It may or may not be what we are expecting, but his promise is that he will do it.

I don’t know about you, but I could do with God getting a tissue and wiping away the tears I still cry, and truly making things new.  That’s the hope I cling to.

Thank you God
for your promises.
That there will be a new day
and a new way.
That you will come
and dwell amongst us,
holding us tight,
wiping our tears,
taking our fears,
our suffering,
our pain,
our grief
and those things that cause us to feel like that.

That they will be gone,
and in place of desolation and despair,
will be your ways.

Thank you for the hope,
the vision,
the promise
in you

Heavenly Worship and Hope

The book of Revelation gives us a picture, a vision.  Here it gives us a vision of the glory of heaven – so difficult to grasp and put into words.

The original readers were suffering persecution, and the visions are to give them hope – that God will ultimately triumph. God is the one who has the power to save them – and will.  And they worship.

It is best just soaked in

Revelation 7:9-17

People from Every Nation

⁹ After this, I saw a large crowd with more people than could be counted. They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ as they shouted,

“Our God, who sits
upon the throne,
has the power
to save his people,
and so does the Lamb.”

Christoph Thomas Scheffler [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

¹¹ The angels who stood around the throne knelt in front of it with their faces to the ground. The elders and the four living creatures knelt there with them. Then they all worshiped God ¹² and said,

“Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom,
thanks, honor, power,
and strength belong to our God
forever and ever! Amen!”

¹³ One of the elders asked me, “Do you know who these people are that are dressed in white robes? Do you know where they come from?”

¹⁴ “Sir,” I answered, “you must know.”

Then he told me:

“These are the ones
who have gone through
the great suffering.
They have washed their robes
in the blood of the Lamb
and have made them white.
¹⁵ And so they stand
before the throne of God
and worship him in his temple
day and night.
The one who sits on the throne
will spread his tent
over them.
¹⁶ They will never hunger
or thirst again,
and they won’t be troubled
by the sun
or any scorching heat.

¹⁷ The Lamb in the center
of the throne
will be their shepherd.
He will lead them to streams
of life-giving water,
and God will wipe all tears
from their eyes.”