After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. Revelation 4:1-2 NIV
Heavenly Father, as crazy-making, anger-fueling, and fear-stoking as this election year has been in the United States, it still pales in comparison with the political world of John the Apostle’s day. And the gifts you gave Christian’s living in Rome in the late first century, are the same gifts you give us today—a peak into heaven’s courts, a vision of the occupied throne, and an affirmation of the “must-ness” of your sovereignty.
As often as I return to this text—as many times as I marinate in it, pray in, and worship by it, what stands out to me on this Sunday before we elect a new American president, is the glorious phrase, “I will show you what must take place after this”. You’re not the God who deals in “might’s” but “must’s”—not in possibilities, probabilities, but in actualities. Everything you plan must and will take place. There are no accidents, just providence. We don’t have to like our new president; but we can trust our eternal God. Hallelujah, so very Hallelujah!
For the rest of the book of Revelation you revealed yourself to John as the God who is sovereign over all evil and joy, worry and worship, persecution and praise, kings and crickets. Everything you have planned “must take place,” up till the Day of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, the eradication of evil, the wiping of every tear, and the Day of all-things-new.
This doesn’t make life easy, but it sure makes it good; it doesn’t make it stress-void, but it sure makes life peace-full. Father, as we in the USA head to the polls Tuesday, may we do so with our eyes filled with a vision of the occupied throne of heaven, and our gaze set on Jesus—the author and perfecter of our faith. Help us love our neighbors, trust our God, and long for the Day. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ righteous and reigning name.
