See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3-4)
Here is a message of hope for all time.
The first things... periods of time where there is death and mourning and crying and pain... have passed away.
The first things... periods of time when it's not so clear that God is among us... have passed away.
The first things... periods of time when God's people freely choose paths of destruction instead of hope... have passed away.
The first things... periods of time we dwell in right now as we struggle through the ups and downs of life... will pass away. It will not always be like this. God, who dwells with us in Christ, will make us and all things new.
What a vision of hope for things to come. Write it down! Believe it! These words and this vision is "trustworthy and true."
Recently someone approached me in tears. We certainly do still live among "the first things." Her tears were not the result of any physical pain, or fear for her future, instead they were tears for her loved ones... for her brothers. She knows of the voice of Christ and believes in Jesus, but her brothers do not. They don't believe. "I don't think they will be saved. That scares me so much. What can I do?"
Scripture from Daniel to the New Testament does lift up the image of children of God being resurrected to both salvation and damnation on the Day of Judgement (Daniel 12, John 5, Revelation 20). Imagine that... some raised to everlasting life and others raised to everlasting contempt. How does that connect with the image of Revelation 21? If our loved one's are judged poorly on that day, how could we possibly not feel pain, or mourning, or crying? Will we not be devastated?
An image of Christ's love and the power of the cross shared by the author Garry Wills helps me to understand what God has done for us in Jesus. It helps me understand this image of the Judgment Day.
One night a father was putting his eight-year-old daughter to bed when he notice that she was crying. "Why are you crying he asked?"
"Oh, it's nothing," she replied.
"No, tell me. I want to know what's wrong."
"Well, I'm afraid that I'm going to hell. And hell is a terrible place where you are always on fire and feel pain and suffer and it never stops. I'm so scared Daddy."
The Father was stunned by what his little girl was saying. "Where in the world did you get that idea?"
"My teacher was telling us about hell and said that if I'm not good then that's where God is going to send me." The daughter was visibly shaken as she said this.
There was a pause as tears began to form in the Father's eyes. His first instinct was to say that her teacher was just flat out wrong. But instead he put it to her this way. He pulled his daughter close to him and he looked at her full in the face and said to her.
"My dear, know this... if that's where you are going to go then I am going to be right there with you, to love you and to protect you and to never let you go."
God so loved the world...
He suffered death and was buried...
If we have united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
When that day comes when we are gathered together before God, when mourning, crying, death and pain will be no more, it won't be because we're glad we're the lucky ones or because we have had our hard drives erased so we don't remember those "left behind." Death, crying, morning and pain being wiped away means that God has fully reconciled creation to himself in Christ.
It will be just.
It will be life.
It will be love.
It will be new.
It will be God.
Crying will be no more... or maybe the crying will be made new just as we are made new: transformed into tears of joy. How amazing it will be when our faith becomes sight and we fully experience God living among us.
Now that we have written down these words and digested them into our souls we are called to live our lives in light of this news. Love one another. Be kind. Live in community. Be a light so that tears of pain may become tears of joy right now... for all God's children.
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