Calvary’s anthem – A Meditation (6)

 

 

“I have a longing for the world above where multitudes sing the great song, for my soul was never created to love the dust of earth. Though here my spiritual state is frail and poor, I shall go on singing Calvary’s anthem.” (The Valley of Vision, page 315).

 

As I grow older, I sense the eternals pressing upon me and drawing me into that world above. I feel it, smell it, touch it, taste it, breathe it into my lungs. Do not all of us who are in Christ breathe the sweet Holy Spirit as our way of life?

 

We live 5 ½ miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes I can smell the ocean. Since I am an early riser, most mornings I see the sun rise and many of those sunrises are beautiful, fleeting but beautiful. While I cannot see the ocean from our home, I know the sun is rising over its horizon, I know it is shining its rays on the beach, I know the waves are usually lapping, or at other times pounding, against the shoreline. I always “see” the coastline and the ocean when I look to the sky in the morning and consider the sunrise.

 

I can be at the ocean in a few minutes, and I can plunge into it shortly after my arrival. As long as I can remember, I have associated being in the ocean with being in the depths of God’s love, being enveloped in His Holy Presence beyond measure. One day I will enter the infinite ocean of His love never to return to the shoreline; I may come to the ocean on that day, or the ocean will come to me; some things we do not know, but in all things we can trust our dear Lord Jesus and His overwhelming love (Romans 8:31 – 39).

 

As Paul writes, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; God has prepared us for this very purpose (2 Cor. 5:1 – 5), and He has indeed given us the Spirit as a pledge and guarantee, as His Promise to us (Eph. 1:13; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).

 

I suppose I visualize Revelation chapters 21 and 22 every day, and why not? I will be there sooner rather than later, that City even now is drawing me into itself, where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the only Light. If they will be our Light then, ought they not be our Light now?

 

“They will see His Face, and His Name will be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:4). This, my friends, is to live for…to see Him and to have His Nature within our hearts and minds as His daughters and sons.

 

“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the Name of My God, and the name of the City of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My New Name” (Rev. 3:12).

 

The fleeting sunrises that I am blessed to behold are daily promises of that Great Day when the “Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall” (Malachi 4:2). The joy that skipping calves and lambs display is uninhibited, it is natural, it is without self-consciousness or fear – it is joy within joy and joy overflowing.

 

“Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice” (Isaiah 60:5).

 

“No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will be moon give you light; but you will have the LORD for an everlasting Light, and your God for your glory” (Isaiah 60:19; see also Rev. 21:22 – 23; 22:5).

 

One of the many hymns embedded in my soul since my teenage years was written by Carrie Ellis Breck, Face to Face. It is my hope, my vision, my reason for living, my reason for sharing Jesus with others – that they may know the depths of His love and the expectation of seeing Him face to face. Here is a selection from the hymn:

 

Face to face with Christ my savior,

Face to face what will it be

When with rapture I behold Him

Jesus Christ who died for me?

 

Refrain: Face to face I shall behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky,

Face to face in all His glory,

I shall see Him by and by.

 

Face to face oh, blissful moment!

Face to face to see and know,

Face to face with my Redeemer,

Jesus Christ who loves me so.

 

Are we living in the light of His love today?

 

Are we sharing the warmth of His love with others?

 

Are we inviting others to skip with us?