He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Revelation 21:5

For Meditation

The power brokers do not care. They successfully do everything to maintain their positions and wealth. The ordinary people do everything to make ends meet while struggling to convince themselves that tomorrow will be better. The poor and marginalized are confused and uninformed, clinging to sympathetic souls, usually seen as beacons of hope. Their cries and expressions of desperation get muted by the sound of unending wars, the terror of gangsters in inner-city neighborhoods or shantytowns, and the deafening silence of the open countryside, dotted with mud houses. Their fields are dry and empty. Diseases invade their homes that are miles away from anything that resembles a health post. Barely does a day go by without a cry of agony, the wailing over the cold body of a little child, filling the compound of a muddy hut in a remote area unknown to the power brokers of the nation.

It is heartbreaking to present to you my perspective of a world that has gone amok, enslaved by greed and self. It is a world that has lost any meaningful sense of decency and morality and of being one another’s keeper. So, when a deadly pandemic invades this heartless world, disrupting the established ‘order,’ nations suddenly become perplexed and are in a near panic. What sense to make of this all-pervasive, invisible killer that can strike the lowly as well as the most powerful? Others deny the reality of its final torturous stages of death that has invaded thousands of homes and brought sorrow and fear to so many.

Amid such chaos, it is so easy for Christians to forget that this is not our home. Our cares, burdens, losses, and pain tend to obliterate the promise of our Savior to return to get us to be with Him forever (Jn. 14:1-3). Our tears blind us to the reality of “a new heaven and a new earth” when this world has passed away (Rev. 21:1). We forget His promise that He is making everything new (5). It may be reassuring then, to take a glimpse of this new heaven and new earth that the Lord Jesus is building for us. Re-visit this golden chapter in Revelation and be encouraged. For, this virus-infested world will not, forever, remain your dwelling place.

 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (1-4).

The promise of our mighty, ever-present, ever-faithful, and ever-loving Lord!