Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped. Revelation 5:13-14
Dear Lord Jesus, I really needed to be reminded of this audible vision and promise today. Even as my heart breaks and my anger grows over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and any of a number of environmental disasters… and even as I know that you order and use such hard providences in creation to humble the arrogant and grant repentance to the contrite (Revelation 8-9), nevertheless…
I am so thankful that one Day we will enjoy the perfected and never-to-be-broken-again world of the new heaven and new earth. I am filled with hope by your promise of the new-creation world of inviolate beauty, goodness and truth. I greatly long for the Day when creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will enjoy the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:18-25).
By faith I can already hear the faint but sure singing of every creature, “in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing” to you, Jesus. But what will that frustration-free (Rom. 8:20), fully-engaged, full-throated pan-creature symphony and chorus actually sound like? I’ll gladly wait and see… and hear.
Until that Day, grant me the gospel-sanity to want the conversion of your people more, much more, than I want an oil-slick-free holiday by the sea. If by hurricane, earthquake, flood, tornado, oil spill… or whatever, your saving purposes are realized, I’ll humbly submit. Even as I’ll also keep seeking to be a good steward of the “first heaven and first earth,” until the appearing of the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1-2). So very Amen, I pray, with a conflicted yet hopeful heart, in Jesus’ name.