The vision of heaven

At once the Spirit took control of me. There in heaven was a throne with someone sitting on it. His face gleamed like such precious stones as jasper and carnelian, and all around the throne there was a rainbow the colour of an emerald. In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, on which were seated twenty-four elders dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold. (verses 2-4)

Read Revelation 4: 1-8

When Handel was asked how he had come to write the magnificent music of the Messiah, his answer was, ‘I saw the heavens opened and God upon his great white throne’.

We human beings need visions and dreams to inspire us. Most of our great achievements are the result of dreams: building the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Sydney Opera House or landing a person on the moon. The people who have the greatest impact on our country are those who can inspire visions.

The Christian faith is also visionary. We have the vision of a life beyond this life, a kingdom that is not of this world, a God who rules in the splendour and glory of heaven and who has embraced us, his human children on earth, in this great plan.

What heaven is like remains only a vision. God on his throne is not described in human-like terms. Rather, the vision describes God in the flashing of gem-like colours. Elsewhere, 1 Timothy describes God as one who ‘lives in the light that no one can approach’ (6:16). But the vision includes human beings. The twenty-four elders dressed in white are representatives of those who overcome the world and are with Christ and the Father in heaven (3:21).

Inspire me, Lord, with the vision and promise of heaven, to serve you faithfully on earth and to look forward in hope to inherit the blessings and glories of heaven. Amen.

by Kevin Schmidt, in ‘God’s Peace for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2005)

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