Revelation 14:6-7
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud
voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come:
and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters.
Waiting for the end of the world? Waiting for some calamity to strike – a
meteor, nuclear war, Facebook filing Chapter 11? People hold up signs saying “The End Is Near”
and expect Doomsday to meet them around the corner. But, the world doesn’t have to end, the earth
explode, for the hour of the Lord to come.
That hour is right now. And
now. And now. And – yup, here it is again. Because time and space belong to the eternal
and infinite Source – to “the ultimate reality that everyone calls God.”[1] This is His house. He’s already here.
If we wait for man-made apocalypse or the natural
expiration of our solar system – or even if we wait until we are on our
deathbeds because of terminal illness or old age – until we think about
eternity, ultimate reality, the human soul, and what lies beyond this life,
then we aren’t fully living. We are not
fully human, fully alive, unless we look beyond ourselves – not only beyond our
own personal needs in the giving of love and charity, but also beyond our own
skins, beyond our own eyeballs. We did
not create ourselves. We did not bring
ourselves into being. There is an
Uncreated Creator, an Uncaused Cause. As
the poet Rumi says,
“I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t
leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.”
And earlier in the poem, My Soul Is from Elsewhere,
Rumi speaks the timeless human question:
“Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.”
Neither can I stop asking and never should I cease
to plunge myself into the Mystery of Being.
The Unmoved Mover stirs my heart with restlessness until it rests in the
arms of the Beloved One, Infinite/Eternal Love.
And angels fly in the midst of heaven, beyond the
seeing of my corporal eyes, with the message from the foundation of Creation –
What is, is. Do not be blind. Too willing to shut off any detection of the
spiritual, lest we know that the end is here.
The end that is the beginning – not like the pointless going around of a
circle, or a nifty Jedi/Zen trick of the mind.
What truly is, is, always was and always will be. Eternity isn’t something after. Eternity is here and now. And, to the One Who is the Source of All
Being, the key moment is eternally now.
The moment of import, the moment that impacts my immortal soul, is
now. It was never waiting for me at the
end of my days or at the End of Days. My
home, my true self, my eternity, was always where it should be, though I may
not possess the eyes to see.
The glory of life is that it is given. To thank and celebrate with the Giver is to
revel in the gift. “The glory of God is
Man fully alive”[2]–
let’s not wait until our beautiful bodies splash back into the pool. As we are sent forth, let us leap up in joy and
praising, giving glory to the Hour of the Lord as God glories in our eyes wide
open, our souls full throttle, the message of the angels received. The love given given in return. Home.
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