Indescribable

There is a wonderful book that my children loved to listen to when they were young.
Moonbear’s Skyfire by Frank Asch.

We used to enjoy all of the Frank Asch books…about Bear and Little Bird.
This book begins with an amazing rainbow in the sky.
Bear calls his friend Little Bird to look out the window.
The sky is on fire, Bear announces.
It’s a rainbow, Little Bird explains.

They each have ideas of what to do about what they see.
Little Bird wants the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Bear wants to put the fire out.

It is a charming story that I thought about on my morning walk.
The sunrise was absolutely exquisite.

I began my walk when it was still a bit dark.
Suddenly, there was a tiny speck of light just peeking over the horizon.
Slowly the colors seemed to stand up and announce themselves.
Brilliant orange, and red, and splashes of purple.
Skyfire!

Simply magnificent.

I paint pictures with words.
This sunrise needed to be painted on a canvas.
Yet, a two dimensional representation could never fully capture the actual beauty.

I looked at the black silhouettes of the trees.
The branches etched against the brilliant sky.
The sky was my focal point…the trees were secondary.

The shapes of the houses against the flaming colors seemed like a pencil sketch.
I longed to sit down…right on the street…and capture this snapshot in time.

I cannot paint…so I write.
Even the choicest words cannot describe the awesomeness of His creation.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal…The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate was made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
(Revelation 21:10,11,18-21)

The apostle John was the last living apostle.
The other apostles were martyred.
John died of natural causes…a very old man.

John had been exiled to Patmos, a marble quarry.
Most exiles died there because the marble dust got into their lungs.

John survived.
John had a job to do.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show His servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who testifies to everything he saw – that is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who read the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. (Revelation 1:1,2)

John was shown incredible things that he was told to write down.
John was shown heavenly things…that needed to be described in words.

Much like the sunrise, where a two dimensional picture can never quite capture its beauty, John’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, can only give us a glimpse of what awaits us in our heavenly home.

Finite human words describing Heaven’s eternal glory.

We are tethered to time and space.
God is totally “other”.
God is outside us.
He has to be…He is God.

The glory of the Gospel.
God…being totally other…sent His Son to come into time and space.
The infinite into the finite.

Simply Magnificent.