Staying in Rhythm, Part Ten: We Shall Dance
Prayer to the Holy Spirit – From the Walk to Emmaus
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and we shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy Your consolations. #renewal #newcreation #glorification #eschatology
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The greatest work of God’s grace is still to come. It is the work of glorifying grace when God shall make all things new. We read in Genesis chapter one that in the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered above the primal waters as God created the world. At the end of the age, when Christ shall come again, the Spirit of God shall recreate his work so that it may share in his glory. When God glorifies his creation, he will complete that which has gone unfinished, shall redeem that which has been lost, and restore that which has been ruined.
In this life, there is much that goes unfinished. J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a short story called Leaf By Niggle. It is the story of an artist named Niggle whose Magnus opus, when completed, will be the painting of a great tree. Niggle paints each leaf in painstaking detail, making sure that each is unique but in the same style as the others.
Unfortunately for Niggle, life keeps interrupting his work, primarily in the form of needy neighbors. Though Niggle fusses about the interruptions, he is a good-natured man who is always willing to set his priorities aside to help someone else. That means, of course, that the neighbors frequently turn to poor Niggle.
At the end of his life, Niggle’s one regret is that he has not completed his masterpiece and life’s work. But a surprise awaits.
In the world to come, he discovers his work in its completed form. Not one leaf has been lost. Also, each unfinished leaf is done in exactly the way Niggle imagined completing it. There are also the leaves that Niggle would have thought of if he had had the time. #leafbyNiggle
Jesus once said, “I assure you. No one who has left home or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in the age to come.” – Mark 9:29-30.
If we live long enough, we will eventually have to say goodbye to everything and everyone we love. Death and the sands of time take so much from us, but God will restore everything we have lost.
One of the last memories I have of my maternal grandmother is from my youngest aunt’s wedding. My grandmother was in her 80s at the time, yet she still found the energy to dance with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren at the reception. A Kool and the Gang song came on, and she showed her kids that she still knew how to have fun. We laughed and sang as we danced the night away. Oh, how I would love to see her dance again.
I can also remember an earlier memory of her son, Eddie. He died in his young forties from cancer of the eye. We were not ready to let him go. Neither were his children. Eddie was a joyful, playful man who also knew how to work hard to provide for his family.
Then there was a mutual friend of my sister and myself, named Christy. She died in her twenties, leaving behind a young daughter. When Christy was a teenager, she was full of life. It seems sad to think of all of these losses. And surely you, my reader, have your own memories of loss. But death will not have the last word.
The Apostle Paul writes:
“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that mortal flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, and I will tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” – 1 Corinthians 15:50-57
And John says, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it…And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened…The seas gave up the dead that were in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.”-Revelation 20:11-13
And when that glorious day comes, we shall dance! My grandmother, and my uncle, my friend Christy, and all who have gone before us. We shall be caught up in the Divine dance, the Perichoresis, the Triune life! And we shall dance!
“When God saw all that he had made, he beheld it, and it was very good.” – Genesis 1:31. God must grieve at the way we have spoiled his splendid creation. So much has been ruined. My neighbor Mike is one of those beautiful souls who tends to the earth. When we moved into the neighborhood, Mike kept a hive of honeybees. Sadly, we did not get to enjoy them for very long. #resurrection #eternallife #heaven #newearth #newheaven
A few months ago, another neighbor had his fruit trees sprayed with pesticide. Within a few days, Mike’s bees had ingested pollen from those same trees. Just days later, the entire hive died. I wonder. Will earth still be suitable for humans when it is no longer a habitable place for any other species?
The Apostle Paul explains that the whole planet suffers under the weight of sin. He also tells us that the physical world longs for the day when God will lift the curse of sin. That means that the animal kingdom, the plants, and the bacterium have a stake in our salvation. Oceans, deserts, and rainforests shall share in the glory of God’s grace. Here is how Paul puts it.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” – Romans 8:22-23
As Christians, we yearn for the day when God will complete that which goes unfinished, redeem that which has been lost, and restore that which has been ruined. The Holy Spirit urges us to pray for and thus hasten the day of Christ’s return.
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life…And the leaves are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse…The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let all who thirst and who long to drink from the water of life, say, ‘Come.'” -Revelation 22.
And just as we pray, so let us sing:
Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
- Charles Wesley, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling