(by Lorie Codispoti)
When I imagine what life will be like on the New Earth, I think of the joy of all things restored in a world filled with the unveiled, manifest presence of God.
However, when I read about it in Scripture there is something that interferes with my vision of absolute perfection & the unimaginable beauty of this world. And apparently I’m not alone in my angst.
Some people can’t imagine a life without their dearest loved ones or the animals they’ve grown to love. Others have a hard time thinking they won’t be married to their spouse. I’ve heard a handful even lament about the perpetual light because they love looking at the night sky & the beauty of walking along the shoreline in the evening. Then there are those who mourn the dreams they imagine they will lose should their life be prematurely cut short (marriage, children, grandchildren, travel, etc.). What about never having the need to sleep? Some people love to sleep in on their days off.
It’s hard to imagine things we can’t relate to, isn't it? We have a tendency to fear the unknown when we’re comfortable with the known.
I’m not uncomfortable with any of the things I mentioned, but my spirit squirms when I read one, repeated word in the description of the New Jerusalem on the New Earth. See if you can guess what it is...
“And I saw the holy city” (Rev.21:2)
“great city” (Rev.21:10)
“confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed & built by God…”
“for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb. 11,12,13)
“City of our God” (Psa.46,48,87)
While you extroverts may read this & be elated, the introvert in me shudders when I see the word “city.” My mind immediately pictures everyone (all believers from the beginning of time), living side by side (like sardines in a can) in a high-rise apartment complex. I seriously need space & I can't even tell you how much I dislike cities.
One introvert describes her heavenly ideal as “… a quaint cabin in forested heaven surrounded by flowers, next to a babbling book, fifty miles from the closest neighbor.” I too prefer this Edenic picture. My soul resonates with trees & rivers over stone & metal.
This uneasiness prompts me to question what is triggering my resistance, because I know it’s not God.
Whenever we feel uncomfortable about something that we read in Scripture we don’t need to feel guilty or ashamed. We need to grab a shovel. God uses our discomfort with His word as an invitation. So rather than dismissing or excusing those feelings let’s accept His invitation & start digging. When we take time to study & contextualize the passage we find that understanding follows. When you’re motivated to dig deeper you also find that, like potato chips, one shovelful is never enough.
One thing jumped out as I was reading Revelation 21:2…
“I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
This city is not a city waiting to be built. The New Earth, along with its capital city, New Jerusalem, is not some etherial dream land waiting to be realized. It is a real tangible, physical place, made up of material substances & in existence right now. It is where resurrected & embodied humans will live. When Jesus told His disciples that He was leaving to prepare a place for them, He was talking about a city that will be ready for habitation when it arrives on the New Earth. At the same time that betrothed believers are preparing ourselves for the wedding, our Groom is preparing a place for all of us to live together with Him.
The way the Hebrew language defines words is like putting together a puzzle, where each letter is a piece that helps to paint the full picture. The three letters in the word for city (eer) each represent something significant. The first one represents eyes & means to see, behold, & be aware of something. The middle letter represents God’s hand. The third letter represents a turning head. What this is saying is that the hand of God is central & always doing something, & He wants the eyes of all those in the city to turn their heads, look around, & behold what He is doing in the midst of them.
The next thing that stands out in this verse is where it says that this city is “coming down out of heaven from God.” Every city, throughout antiquity, was made by human hands, & then corrupted by human hands. Not so with the incorruptible New Jerusalem, as no man will have anything to do with its construction.
Putting all these things (& more) together has given me a diagnostic tool to evaluate things one shovelful at a time.
I have realized that my initial angst about living in a crowded-with-everything-I-detest city was the equivalent of looking through an old pair of lenses & digging in the soil of the OLD Earth without seeing the guiding hand of God at the center. When I turn my head & look at the idea of a city through the “mind of Christ,” anticipating the fact that at the appointed time we will inhabit resurrected & renewed bodies that look like His.
Having a better, more biblical, understanding (though still limited) of the New Earth & its capital city has shifted my shovel and redirected my thinking. Knowing that there is absolute, unfettered beauty & perfection in the presence of God. Knowing that the absence of all sin, death, suffering, etc. & the consequences that follow each will be completely obliterated forever. Knowing that the Light that illumines the entire city is what makes it out-of-this-world dazzling to behold. Knowing all of this frees me from fearing the unknown. It frees me to embrace the introvert in me that can see the restored, peaceful edenic gardens (multiple Edens), with all the sights & sounds of nature, encapsulated within the walls of the city. The introvert will no longer be drained by the crowds, but rather energized by the corporate worship that we hear from both the angels & every nation, tribe, & tongue. In the same way that the veil will be lifted from our eyes, in order to “see Him as He is,” the veil the darkens & skews the world we live in will be lifted to reveal what the Apostles John & Paul could not articulate because they saw & heard things that exceeded any point of reference they had.
The most amazing feature about the city of God is God Himself. The dwelling place of God will be with us, & where He is there will be such beauty, such joy, such perfection, such wonder, such elation, etc., that we will never, ever, ever have a desire to be anywhere else.
Close the door & lock the gate! Give me the key (fashioned from the metal on my shovel's head). I want to hang itaround my neck so that I can put this fact on display: There’s no place I’d rather be than inside the city of God, basking in His manifest presence & the Light of His glory for all eternity.
That is my reality to come. I hope it's yours as well. If so, I'm pretty sure we will love living together with the King.
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