Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

This week, the daily lectionary is taking us through the end of The Book of the Revelation of John. In today's reading, Revelation 21:9-21, we see the vision of the New Jerusalem, a city built with precious stones and cubic proportions -- resembling the Holy of Holies in the temple -- and with numeric symbolism to denote the Apostles and God's people (12) the city's epic size (1000) and with streets of pure gold for the royal priesthood to walk on.

This marvelous vision of heaven, while rich in symbolism, still leaves much to be imagined, so we might ask: What do we really know about this eternal kingdom? What will it be like? There are a few things we can say for certain:

The first idea, which is born out in the rich symbolism of John's vision, is that heaven is, in a real sense, a kind of return to Paradise, to the Garden that God made for his creatures to inhabit. The Tree of Life, which tradition places in the Garden of Eden -- and which prefigured the Tree of Calvary -- here stands near the throne of God. This Restored Paradise will be the place in which humanity is also restored to its full, beautiful, unblemished, and original purpose: to actively glorify God and fulfill his divine will.

Another reality is that we participate in this Heavenly Kingdom now when we go to church for divine services. We believe that we enter into a heavenly dimension in worship, and that the angels and saints gather around and join in our prayers and praises. In heaven, the veil that separates us visibly from them will be removed and we will all be caught up in a liturgy that will transcend our wildest imaginations.

Finally, we know that this dim knowledge we have about the future Kingdom of God inspires us to live our lives now in devotion to God. The more we become like Christ, whose image we bear, the more prepared we will be to enter this new and marvelous world and to fulfill God's full and eternal purpose for our lives.

Yours in Christ,
Justin