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An Advent reading for December 2.
Read Revelation 21:9–22:5.
When I moved from England to live in Scotland, one thing I found difficult was the shorter periods of daylight in the winter. On dull days, it could seem like it never got light at all. I found this mildly depressing, but some people are seriously affected by it and have to sit with lamps that imitate sunlight. We are all dependent on sunlight for our physical health and our mental well-being.
It is not surprising that in many cultures
people have worshiped the sun, and sometimes the moon, too. Why does a sunny day lift our spirits? Why do many people love to bask in the sun? Science confirms that our planet’s distance from the sun, with the light and heat that it provides, is essential to life on earth.
In this creation, God’s blessings are
mediated to us through creaturely means, sunlight among them. In the new creation, we shall live in God’s immediate presence, immersed in it as we now are in daylight—and there will be no night.
Imagine it: a city filled with light. Imagine it like a brilliant crystalline jewel (Rev. 21:11), the light reflected in all the precious stones of many colors listed in verses 19–20. Imagine, if you can, the way the light shines through the transparent gold of which the city is made (vv. 18, 21). Get a view of the city from a distance. It stands atop a mountain (v. 10) and shines out over all the surrounding country.
It is the sunlight of that world. It is the light by which people live (v. 24).
Think, now, of a stained-glass window in a church with vivid depictions of biblical or other figures. The window itself is beautiful enough at all times, but when the sun shines through it, it glows. Its intense colors light up! In the New Jerusalem, ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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