This painting depicts the culmination of my hopes and dreams, which I’ll confess here, still feel under construction. I say “under construction” to communicate that I’m not always sure what I desire most as I look ahead to the conclusion of all things. How would I, if given the pen to write the ending to the larger narrative we find ourselves in… articulate it? Over time, my heart has grown more and more attached to the future described in Revelation 21 and 22. It’s a good ending… better said, it’s a good re-beginning.
Additionally, as a lifelong student of the biblical narrative and as a successful graduate of the 10 th grade where geometry, earth sciences, and literary analysis were all required coursework, I have come to treasure the curious, sometimes tenuous, intersection between multiple disciplines. After all, in the end, won’t all truth ultimately converge? Cubes, bisections, rays, xylem, phloem, photosynthesis, reproduction, organisms, apocalyptic genre, poetry analysis, eschatology, and principles of family therapy… won’t all these play together in symphony in the Kingdom to come?
I have friends who help me hold to this version of our shared future. They are the kind of people who long for restoration, cherish beauty, believe in convergence, pray for justice, who promote healing, who desire things to be made right (right now), who encourage others to realize their own Kingdom contributions, who seem to understand my deep desire to love and be loved by a God who’s personal intent it is to “dwell” with people. Ultimately, these friends want what I want—that the apocalyptic visions described in Revelation 21 and 22 would become a template for their own future. These friends are described well by the Psalmist:
He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
I’m grateful for these heralds, like Stacey, calling me to action, even as I wait for the healing of the nations.
From Revelation 21 and 22
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man…” And… “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and…he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels…
The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod... Its length and width and height are equal… The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald…
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations… And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
