"Come up here"

"Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!"

 "Absolute futility! Everything is futile!"

 "Absolutely pointless, everything is pointless!"

All of these are different translations to what Ecclesiastes describes as life simply lived, "under the sun." As I read these words I can almost hear the words to a song in Les Miserables  playing in my mind.

"Turning, turning, turning through the years
Minutes into hours and hours into years
Nothing changes, nothing ever can
Round and round the roundabout
and back where you began!
Round and round and back where you began!

How very depressing it would be if this was the only way to look at life lived here on earth, from birth to death. But there is another way. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Two years ago today I had brain surgery. The last two years have been very hard and life-altering. However, I have found that the more difficult my life has become, the more I need to focus my attention on life "beyond the sun."

This Summer while recovering from my sixth surgery I decided to use my time studying the book of Revelation. I was only on the third verse of the first chapter when I came to these words, "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." This word for blessed means "possessing the favor of God, that state of being marked by fullness from God."*

In this book that unveils God's eternal plan there is an invitation, "After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this" (Revelation 4:1). This invitation comes with a blessing to see beyond the sun all the way to the throne of God.

This Summer as I read and reread the words of this prophecy I felt the full circle of God's love. In the beginning God had come in the cool of the evening seeking fellowship with His creation, but the fellowship was broken by sin and rebellion. Death, sorrow and grief became part of the human experience.

In the book of Revelation there is the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. God at last will dwell with His people. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will exist no longer, grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous  things have passed away. Then the One seated on the throne said, "Look I am making everything new" (Revelation 4:5).

Life is not meaningless. Life is not futile. Life is not pointless. Look carefully; read the book of Revelation and you might just find an open door that will reveal a picture of what is above the sun.

* Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament