THEOLOGY THURSDAY
BY DAVE HOLZHAUER
Have you ever had the misfortune of having your eyes dilated by an optometrist only to walk outside into bright sunshine soon afterwards? Or perhaps have a flashlight beam shown into your eyes? If so, you know the sensation of tightly shutting your eyes before you can even recognize it's bright. And of course have the bright, shiny dots dance before your eyes.
Light is a funny type of radiation; too little and you can't see anything. Too much and you can't see anything. All thanks to the limitations of human retinas.
“The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Rev. 21: 18-23 ESV)
While it’s easy to focus on the imagery of gold and precious stones, the overwhelming theme for me is light. I say this because the author talks about gold as though it were glass instead of the eponymously colored metal. Plus, I think humans find these stones so lovely because of how they sparkle; how they reflect and refract light. This impression continues in chapter 22: “Then the angelshowed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.” (Rev. 22:1-2) Picturing water as it were flowing in a clear stream, the image is that of sparkle, shine, and life. The stream isn’t polluted with oil sheen or anything that might give a false appearance of light; it’s clean, bright as crystal. It's fitting for the river of the water of life to be described like this; I think all of us would be viscerally repulsed by a river of life described as polluted, stained, or matte.
We're fascinated by light; it's simultaneously beautiful, as shown in sunsets, nature scenes, paintings, glass sculptures, etc., and it is the medium by which we see beauty. While it's dangerous to take poetic imagery and language literally, it does begin to give us a ravishingly beautiful picture of what eternal life with God will one day look like. It does give us encouragement in all the vagaries and disappointments of this life that suffering isn't forever. It is interesting that while the heavenly landscape description occupies verse upon verse (it’s just reflecting God, after all), the brief description of God is that he is the lamp of all Heaven; that like a lamp on Earth he's difficult for mortal eyes to look at. But we are promised that we will see God, that we will see him for who he is. Just as soon as your retinas are prepared for it.
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