Reflections

Weekly Devotion for May 16, 2022
By Tsuker Yang


Rely on God
 

And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.  It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.  I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.  Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.  People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.  But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:10-11, 22-27) 

There is a city known as Dubai that has become a spot of world interest in recent years. It has the highest skyscraper in the world, the Berj Khalifa. I heard the city was built on water and sand (of course, not entirely), and millions of people visited it every year. But it was never an interest to me until recently. A friend said to me that in the last day of Ramadan (April 30^th), there would be a big celebration in Dubai, and magnificent scenes would be shown from the Berj Khalifa. I googled and found the scenes to be beautiful and the city to be fascinating.

I can’t imagine what the “holy city Jerusalem” will be like where streets (imagine the materials made for homes) are made of pure and crystal-clear gold and precious stone, and there is no need for the sun or moon… light or electricity. John’s vision of this holy city goes far beyond any human imagination and the city of Dubai. No materials on earth are needed for the building and existence of the city. All that are in it are pure and holy, the people and the materials. Far exceeding the city of Dubai, the “holy city Jerusalem” is not built on water or sand, but in space and time, or in the multiverse as some may call, which is everywhere in the vast cosmos of life and eternity.  The foundation of this city, however, is rooted and depended on the temple that is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. It cannot and will not exist without the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. Everything has their hinges on the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.

I wonder about the troubles we face today that the war between Ukraine and Russia has brought to the consciousness of the world. Many of our nations depend their energy and existence on the grace of certain nations while their dependency also becomes a threat to their own existence. We can rely on each other, one nation with another nation. But the goodness of this also depends on the goodness of our relationship, which may be hard to keep up. Everything seems to be uncertain. Only one thing is sure. God holds in God’s hand our existence, all that we need and all our well-beings rely on God. This, too, depends on a relationship, but a relationship of love and grace, in this life or the life to come in eternity. 

Almighty God, thank you for holding the fragile world in your hand. You are our beginning and our ending, our hope and our peace. You created the world and brought it to order and harmony. I pray that you will bring peace and harmony to your world today. Amen.