Our reading from Revelation today continues with John’s experiences. “After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne!” (Revelation 4:1-2). John had been granted a glimpse of heaven where he witnessed the one who reigns there.
In many ways this vision is like that of the prophet Isaiah who centuries before had also been allowed to witness the heavenly court and to overhear the proceedings there (Isaiah 6). Taken together these visions offer a profound sense of comfort to me for they remind me that come what may, there is always one who reigns. Earthly kingdoms come and go. Societies collapse and are replaced. Institutions run their course. Entire cultures rise and fall. These are the ways of humanity within the flow of history. But in the court of heaven there is eternal certainty and everlasting stability.
The Greeks and Romans imagined wars of succession being fought among the gods they worshiped, deities constantly engaged in intrigue. Not so with the people of God. We worship one whose dominion is unquestioned and unwavering. The uncertainty we may feel in this life is countered by the absolute assurance that God is Sovereign and that in God’s time all life will become what God wills it to be.
Prayer: God of eternity, help us to live these days in the knowledge that you alone reign over time and space and that in you all life finds its fulfillment. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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