Thursday, March 24, 2011

Dead Man Worshiping

I turned and saw His long, flowing brilliantly white robe girded across the chest with solid, almost transparent gold. I could look no further as all else faded from view.

How can I put into words what it is to see even this much of the One by whom, and for whom, are all things? How to describe the immanence of He who is before all things and in whom all things consist? Before there was time or space or causality there was Him. Before sight or sound, before thought or whisper of words, there was Him. And it was He who stood before me with a shining countenance of purest holiness. He who is the Source of all beauty and nobility and strength and royalty and wisdom was utterly and completely there.

I was face to face with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lamb Slain Before the Foundation of the World, The Beginning and The End, The Word of God.

And all this flashed through my mind in the twinkling of an eye and I was immediately overwhelmed by His glory.

Like all mankind before, me I fell on my face as if dead, such was the terrible beauty of the Lord of Lord and King of Kings.

To lift my head for even a split second was an impossibly irreverent thought. The impulse to do so died before being formed, and I trembled from every aspect of my being, feeling that I would vibrate apart by the sheer majesty of His Presence.

"Stand, my Son." He commanded gently.

I obeyed, but kept my eyes lowered. Suddenly, all of the incredible vividness of the Heavenly out lands, all the indescribable beauty of this Place, paled in comparison to Him.

"You are indeed upon Holy Ground, Dead Man, but fear not. I have made you clean. I have washed you in My blood, and what I have cleansed, you must not call common!"

"Lift your eyes, and see Me! It is what you have asked. It is your heart's desire. I have heard your prayer."

His Voice thundered as at the Dawn of Creation, like the sound of many waters, like an ancient trumpet that blasted throughout all existence.

It was all I could do to comply. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and I fell on my face once more a Dead Man.

Then I felt a hand placed gently on my trembling shoulder.

"Fear not," the Voice repeated, but this time it was the deep-timbered voice of a Man who spoke quietly, as if to a frightened child.

His Presence was as overwhelmingly powerful as before, but now there was something else, something that tempered the consuming Fire of His Deity, and I knew then without looking that He had veiled Himself in His humanity to protect such a one as me from the fierceness of His Being - an extravagance of sheer force that not all the stars in the Universe could contain or reflect.

He helped me stand, and lifted my chin to gaze into my eyes.

Oh! The inconceivable LOVE I saw there!

I could only bear that gaze for a moment before I collapsed in great sobs of…

Joy! Yes! It was joy that was washing away all sense of myself, that obliterated all awareness of everything but those eyes.

They shone with a depth of mercy and intelligence for which words had not yet been devised.

And their entire focus was locked so steadfastly on me in such welcome and reciprocal joy that had all eternity ended at that very instant it would have been more than enough!

"I have been waiting a long time for this visit," He said with a smile.