God with us in the end | Dec. 23
Revelation 21:1
Jesse Wilson | Community Groups Pastor
The Lord of the Rings is linked to Christmas time for me. This is partly from being in a theatre in December 2003 to see “The Return of the King” where, at long last, a slow and toilsome march to the resolution of the story had arrived. The terrible threat that had been dreadfully draped over “Middle-Earth” for centuries was finally and fully dealt with. And for the hero Frodo, he feels the completeness of being rid of it and exclaims these liberating words from his exhausted lips: “It’s gone…It’s done….”
There was no longer a source of any burden or any trouble or any fear.
This must be similar to what John felt as he received a picture of the future in Revelation 21:1: “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.”
We are meant to understand the “sea” symbolically as the source or presence of evil. And in the future the sea is no more.
No more!
We must grasp the weight of this!
We must grasp the promise that we will one day be fully and finally rid of the cause of all our sicknesses, stresses, and separation from God.
I cherish the reminder of “God with us” in our mess of sin and evil at Christmas. But the best part about Christmas isn’t confined to an annual celebration; it is a major advancement of God’s “new heaven and new earth” plan. A plan that will culminate with God, at long last, finally and fully and forever with us. This is what the resolution of our story in a restored creation is about! And, it also means (don’t miss it): sin and evil no longer with us.
Take your feelings—be they delight or despair—this Christmas and point them beyond the 25th. Ask our Father in heaven for eyes to see and a heart to embrace enthusiastic expectation about that great future moment where we will breathe the deepest final sigh of settled relief and exhale the words, “It’s gone! It’s done!”
PRAYER: Father, I’m so thankful for the reminder that what John saw I too will one day see. You know where I am today. You know where the world is today. And this Christmas I ask for the help to know more deeply that what currently is will one day pass away as you restore every single part of creation. Give me eyes to see how temporary sin and evil are, and stir up fresh excitement in my heart for the future of being with you in the new heaven and new earth.