Devotion - March 7th

Stillspeaking Lent Devotional: Friday, March 7
March 7

Visionary
Revelation 11:15-19

Quinn G. Caldwell

Reading this Bible passage, you might need to be reassured that no, you're not stoned (though some have argued that the author of this passage was). This is The Revelation to John, the book with the trippiest visuals in the whole Bible. There are a mighty whore, an evil dragon, a celestial mother with starry hair (she fights the dragon, naturally), giant insects, bowls full of plagues, hordes of angels, plus a new heaven and a new earth. Whoa.

What to make of it all? Obviously, it's about the end of everything you know. Beyond that, it's hard to tell. Some say it's a plan for the "end times." Some say it's a coded diatribe against the Roman Empire. I say that spending too much time thinking about it misses the point.

Better to just groove on the imagery. Think of it as some crazy artwork that regularly comes to life and rearranges itself. Don't analyze, just react. What do the images proclaim about God? What would it feel like to actually see the Temple up in the sky surrounded by thunder and lightning? Sit with it. Stretch yourself. Spend some time imagining the unimaginable. And let it get you ready to ask yourself the real mind-bender: at the end of time, if all this comes to pass, how will it be good news?

Prayer: O God, grant me visions this Lent. Show me a world beyond anything I can imagine. Make me ready to hope in things so wonderful only you could conceive them. Amen.