Dave Sims - October 2016

There is nothing quite as exciting as opening day. Football season just began a few weeks ago and whether we enjoy Friday nights or Sunday afternoons, the opening of football season is always a good thing. Opening day of baseball season is also a moment that we look forward to. I remember as a kid that I couldn't wait for the first day of Little League season to put on my catcher’s mask, see the sunshine, smell the fresh cut grass and play baseball again. It could be opening day of your favorite restaurant that just came to a town nearby.  Or opening day for a store or a mall where you like to shop. Right now at our house we are very excited about opening day of deer season. Joey is counting down the hours and the minutes until we’re able to be in the woods again.   I remember two years ago last March, opening day at the new church building and how exciting it was to get to go into that new place and worship together for the first time; it was a great day!
    
I wonder if all these opening day feelings are just a little taste of what John felt as he put a pen to paper and wrote the book of Revelation. John found himself in the spirit, on the Lord’s Day, and he found himself able to have a vision of what the first day in heaven would be like and it was awesome! He describes Jesus, his appearance is bright like the sun, hair white like wool, wearing priestly garments.  He describes the presence of lamp stands that represent the churches and a voice like a trumpet that spoke to him... I wonder what that was like? He spends 22 chapters describing for us all kinds of details about heaven, about earth, about struggle, about the human story, about God's intervention into that story. Then he goes on to describe the judgment, the division between good and evil, and what life will be like when this world is over and we step into the eternity that God has promised. This book has become one of my favorite books partly because there are so many scenes of worship described in revelation, everything from a huge meal to great songs and all people bowing down at the feet of the King. In some way it's as though John is describing for us opening day in heaven and what that will be like. So what if we considered our lives right now just to be pre-season, to be practice, a time for us to be getting ready to be worshipers.  Will we be ready to worship on opening day?   Just some thoughts, see you at practice on Sunday.
     Dave