April 23

Heavenly Worship

            After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

                And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Revelations 7:9-12

            Eternity will not be a lonely place.  It will not be a quiet place either.  Heaven will be filled with angelic beings and believers of every tongue, tribe and nation, all singing and shouting and proclaiming together the goodness of God, filled with joy.

            There will be different skin tones, different languages spoken, different physical expressions of worship.  John’s vision is an incredibly beautiful picture of the diversity and complexity of Heaven’s Worshippers.  There will be dancing and standing and clapping and swaying and jumping and lying face down and probably flags waving.  And the voices that will resonate above everyone else’s will be the ones who have never been heard before.  Those who were unable to speak or sing or worship in this lifetime will rejoice with such fervor and such excitement that they will stand out.  They will be dancing as they have never danced before and jumping to heights that they never could in this life.  Those whose bodies twitched uncontrollably on Earth will sit in glorious peace.  Those who could not see or hear will drink in all the glorious sights and sounds.  Those who had to run from the room because the music was too loud in life will giddily dance in the midst of the raucous sound.  Joy will be ever present as the Creator and the Created enjoy each other as was originally intended.

            Sunday worship is not like this here and now.  There are glimpses, some congregations who have the freedom for everyone to worship as they can or as they wish.  There is the severely autistic young man who dances in the aisle amid smiles and encouragement even though he is nowhere near the beat that the worship team is playing.  There is the deaf man who signs along with the song, lifting his joyful hand expressions to the Lord.  There is the boy who has multiple sets of earplugs and headphones on while he sings so that the music will not grate on him.  There is the delightful young woman whose face is the picture of concentration as she mimics the hand motions of someone singing in sign language.  When each song finishes she is so happy and so proud that she was able to worship God along with someone else.

            Then there are the families who stay home during worship because it is just too hard to participate.  Their children are rowdy, the noise agitates them, they yell instead of singing or they dance in a way that distracts the other church goers.  It is just so much work to get our kids to a service…especially if we think that they won’t get anything out of it.  Maybe it will be more rejuvenating for us if church is just skipped this week.  If we have a good week, maybe we’ll try next Sunday.

            Don’t skip.  If your church service does not fit your family’s schedule or special needs…if your church does not allow both you and your children to worship the living God and connect in all your special, quirky ways, leave.  Go somewhere that will.  Your time is too short…your time with your children is too precious to waste Sunday after Sunday hoping that your church body will get it.  Churches are slow to change.  If you are having to skip lots of Sundays, your relationships are probably faded and your child probably has nothing holding them to this church.  Go somewhere that they can experience the goodness of God and be free to be themselves.

            There are no perfect churches; they are all occupied by fallen men and women.  But there are some that look a lot more like the picture from Revelations than others.

           

A moment to reflect:

Can your child be themselves during your church’s worship times?  If so, celebrate!  If not, pray for discernment about where to go.