Joe Foltz
Revelation 20:11-21:18
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
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
My dad loved to decorate for Christmas, both the interior and exterior. In the house I grew up in, we routinely put up more than a dozen Christmas trees. Every room big enough got a full-size tree, even the garage, and every other room had at least a one-footer sitting on the countertop. My freshman year of high school, we moved into a new house on December 21, and Dad had 5 trees put up and decorated by Christmas Day.
There’s just something about decorating a home for Christmas that makes it seem homier. I suspect it is because it helps us remember that this is a special time of year--a time of year where we focus on our faith and on our family. We hear songs on the radio that proclaim “There’s no place like home for the holidays” and “I’ll be home for Christmas. You can count on me.”
The passage for today gives a vision of a new home for both God and his peoples. John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2). There is a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem--all a new home where God will live with those he calls his children.
It’s a home that we don’t have to decorate. It will come to us fully prepared for us to move in, but in order to be invited to live there, we must remain faithful to the God who prepares it.
It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. - Revelation 21:6-7
