The Door That Was Always Open

Revelation 4

On a small stone island called Patmos, the sea went on and on with no other shore in sight. An old man named John lived there, far from home and far from the people he loved. The world he had left behind was breaking into pieces. People were frightened. People were crying. And John must have wondered, the way you sometimes wonder on a hard day, who was holding all of it together.

Then John saw something in the sky above him. A door, standing wide open.

And a voice, kind as morning, said, "Come up here. Come and see."

So John went up through the open door, and there at the very center of everything he found a throne.

Someone was sitting on it. Someone bright and beautiful, shining like green and fiery jewels. And all around that throne, soft and curving, there was a rainbow.

A rainbow. The very thing God gives to say: I remember. I have not forgotten you. I keep my promises.

So the world had a center after all. It had a heart, and the heart was a throne, and the One sitting on it was calm and sure and unhurried, the way he had been since before the first morning of the world.

Around the throne were lights and crowns and living creatures, and everything that could sing was singing. Over and over, like waves coming in and never stopping, they sang:

Holy. Holy. Holy.

You are worthy. You made everything. You made it because you wanted it. You hold it because you love it.

That throne did not begin the day John found it. It had been there all along, and the door had been standing open all along with it. On John's loneliest day, and on your hardest one, the throne was never once empty.

From down here you cannot always see it. But there is a center to everything, and the center is love, and one day that love would come close enough to touch.

For the King on that throne did not want to stay far away. He came down through every door, all the way down into our breaking world, and he came with a face you could see and a name you could say. His name is Jesus. And he is leading us home, step by step, up to the throne we were made for.

The door is still open. It is open for you.

Right now, while you are hearing this story, Someone is sitting on that throne, holding the whole round world and holding you. He has already begun to walk you home. One day you will stand in that light and see his face, and the singing will be all around you, and you will know you were held every step of the way.