This Sunday's reading is so helpful. It gives us an expanded picture of heaven that is wonderfully earthy. It's tangible. Concrete. We can wrap our minds around it. It's not a vision of angels and harps -- it's what we see when we walk out the doors of our homes. It's a city!John has a vision of the arrival of the New Heavens. Like the long-awaited bride who enters the aisle in first view of her husband-to-be, the New Jerusalem emerges from the sky in beauty and splendor. This breathtaking city would make New York, London and Shanghai blush:
- 1,500 miles long, wide and tall,
- great perimeter walls made of jasper,
- foundations encrusted with countless precious jewels,
- the city itself and its streets made of pure gold.
Despite how literally or symbolically you read Revelation, we can all agree that this city is intended to blow away any concept of structure we could ever imagine.
But the wonder of this city isn't in what it's made of -- it's what it represents. God could have created anything as eternity -- God is God! But in choosing this New City as our eternity in the New Heavens, God sent some clear messages about life then and now.
