How
do you describe the indescribable?
John,
in Revelation, gives us a glimpse of the utter magnificence of the
City of God as it comes down out of Heaven and appears in
materiality, and his description provides a sense of its
reality impinging for the first time upon our own.
The
terrible beauty of his words paint an almost incomprehensible image
of grandeur and immensity; a single city half as big as the Moon,
composed of precious stones and materials of such extravagant
proportions as to leave us breathless.
Yet,
I did not see the City as John saw it. I did not come that close.
But
my experience was nonetheless transforming, for what my eyes did not
see, my heart understood, and I was overwhelmed with the conviction
that here, in this place, in the very Center of Existence, everything
was of such solidity, and of such substance, and of such eternality
that everything else - everywhere else - was mere shadow.
This
was the essential glory from which everything else derived.
From
this moment on I will know what it means to be alive.
From
this moment on I will know what it truly means to exist, for I
have been shown the swirling, immeasurable depths of pure creative
power, and have caught a glimpse of the consuming fires of the glory
of our God.
And
the most amazing realization of all, was that this raw, and wild, and
raucously powerful strength, so untamed and infinitely
uncontainable in any dimensional space, is that same power which is
expressly embodied in the Person of my Lord Christ - for in
Him is all this fullness of the Godhead.
He
is the image of this Glory.
That
this One became a creature like us in order to share with us all that
He is, to show us His intent and love for us, to be one
with us, is the greatest, most incomprehensible gift of all.
To
be loved by such a One is unthinkably grand and magnificent and
glorious.
And
then, the vision of my heart was gone, and I stood for what I knew to
be the last time on the Balcony of Heaven.
"He
gave you all that you could withstand," my companion said. "Even
the smallest bit more and you would have been undone."
I
nodded, not willing to speak.
I
was not grieved, exactly, for I knew that my destiny was to live
forever in this realm.
And
I was not exactly impatient, for what is a few more passing years
on-planet when all eternity was my ultimate reward?
But
I was… wistful.
I
did not want to leave, but I understood how little what I wanted at
any particular moment had any real significance in comparison to His
gracious, eternal purposes for me.
Who
was I to do more than just place absolutely everything in His
hands?
Who
was I to do anything other than absolutely, unquestioningly obey His
loving will for me?
After
all, I was, and had only ever been from birth, a Dead Man.
A
Dead Man whom He had made alive.
© Bill
Lilley 2011, 2013
