I Don't Know How

At Restoration, we have entered into a study of the book of Revelation. Tomorrow, I'm assigned to read Revelation 2:12-17. I confess I don't understand the hidden imagery -- to the one who conquers, Jesus will give "some of the hidden manna" and a white stone, upon which there is a name that nobody knows except the one who receives it.

So I read a few commentaries on it, and I found some reasonable interpretations of it. Of course, I still don't understand it!

But I'm intrigued by this grand vision -- that there is way more to life than meets the temporal eye.

And in thinking through Revelation, I think there's a remarkable ending at the very end of the very last book of the entire Bible -- in the latter portion of chapter 22:

"The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price."

And then I wonder to whom the Spirit and the Bride are calling.

Matt Maher's song offers these possibilities --

• for all the thirsty in need of the river
• for all the sleepers waking from their slumber
• for everyone still standing at the shoreline
• for all the hurting souls running from the healer
• for all the skeptics running from an answer
• for all the Pharisees, empty on the inside
• for all the lovers who spent their love on a lie
• for the forgotten
• for all the fatherless looking for approval
• for all the daughters who've never heard they're beautiful

Let everyone who hears, come.

Two close friends lost a niece this week -- at the age of only 12. To the girl who passed away from this life, the Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." To the families who've cried and cried, the Spirit and the Bride say, Come."

I read a story in Christianity Today about the Chinese massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989. An eyewitness said this: "Once I was praying and asking, 'What happened in Tiananmen? Why did you, God, allow this to happen?' The next day, a colleague from Hong Kong who was at Tiananmen sent my by email a journal entry she had written 10 years earlier. She was a Christian at Tiananmen. She watched the brutal killings take place. she held in her arms a boy who was dying. She came out traumatized, and she was angry with God. Every year she asked God, 'Where were you? Why didn't you save the people there?' . . . . . Until the 10th anniversary. Then she had to give a testimony for her church. She said she quieted herself and asked God gently, 'God, where were you?' She went back to the image of the boy dying in her arms. Immediately there was another figure walking toward her from far away. That figure walked with such peace and dignity -- she instantly recognized him. He merged into the dying boy. This dying boy was saying, 'Persevere until the very end. My blood comes from this place.' That figure was Jesus. The Holy Spirit overpowered her. She just cried and cried. She knew that Jesus was there . . . at Tiananmen." Yes, the Spirit and the Bride say, "Come."

To the spouse who feels forgotten by his or her companion, the Spirit and the Bride say, "Come."

We are saved by grace through faith, and that faith does not come from ourselves, it is a gift of God. Free. Inexhaustible.

If you ever read through my blog, you'll see a number of posts where I've become amazed at the width and breadth and depth of God's love. I don't live in that space as often as I'd like. Instead, I too often limit His love in ways that demonstrate my ignorance about Him. And in those moments, I have little grace and peace and joy -- but rather I have myopia, too focused on my present pain to see the bigger picture.

My brother and sister-in-law sent me a birthday card, in which my brother wrote that he has been learning that God loves us in ways we understand and in ways we don't understand. Often, he continued, when we see things as hard and adverse, it is actually an expression of God's love. Yes, to me, the Spirit and the Bride say, "Come."

I believe the Judge of all the earth will do right. I believe He will reconcile all things to Himself. I don't know how He'll do it. But I believe He will. He even says that He will. It's right there for us in Holy Writ.

And at the end of all things, and interestingly (to me) even after the pronouncement of the second death in Revelation 20, the Spirit and the Bride are saying, "Come."

Who are they talking to? Until I know otherwise, I believe they're talking to Everyone. Even then.