Seas, cease
Sees, seas, cease, seize
“The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth…she gave birth to a son…and her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. And there was war in heaven. The dragon [the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan] was hurled down to the earth, and his angels with him. The dragon hurled to the earth…pursued the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.” (Rev 12 condensed)
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth…there was no longer any sea…no more death…no temple, sun, or moon…on no days will gates be shut, no night or light of lamp or sun, no longer any curse. Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” (Rev 21:1, 4; 22:5, 17)
“It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.” (Henry David Thoreau)
John sees a new earth where the seas cease to be. What is its significance? In Genesis, waters symbolize chaos. It is under God’s control and command, as revealed by the formation of land in creation, the receding water of the Flood, the parting of the Red Sea, and Jesus’ calming of the stormy waves. In the perfection of a new heaven and earth, these residual evidence of disorder, discord and diabolical cease to exist. Until then, we are invited to seize the day to accept God’s gift of streams of life-giving water (Ps 1:3) flowing from Jesus. (John 7:38) The alternative is our defeat by the Dragon waging war against us, watching from the shore as we drink deadly salt water, or drown in the depths of the dark, deep sea.
When we look at the calamities and conflicts in our world, what do we see? Revelation, our Scriptural Manga, places imagery into our imagination to see the reality behind the screen of our visible world. In an epic spiritual battle of the ages, Jesus has won the war. Yet the battles continue in our earthly realm. Some find illogical, even irrational, the idea of warfare with evil by an all-powerful and all-loving God. Others see this duel due to a God who loves—by giving us a choice to love in the beginning of creation and again with re-creation—in Jesus who bore our faults and failures, our sins and suffering, as the climax of God’s grace and mercy. What do you see? Who do you see?
We may be only at the end of the beginning for COVID; other catastrophes may follow. Racism seems to never end, nor wars and a myriad of human tragedies. Revelation, however, gives us the bigger picture that we are at the beginning of the end. History has a telos (Gk. end, purpose) and Love wins in the end. Persevere; Martin Luther King says, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” So let us not lose heart in the exploding epidemic of deceptions, disinformation, and division. Seize the moments to channel change with compassion; then pray with hope for peace that transcends understanding. One day, the seas and our tears will cease, replaced by flowing streams of living water.
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