Day 363: Revelation 21:1–8

I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband (v. 2).

I am confident that most of us Gentiles cannot relate to the attachment many Jews through the centuries have felt toward their homeland. Even those whose feet never touched the Holy Land yearned for it like a lost child longs for its mother.

I saw this peculiar bond just weeks ago in the face of my Hebrew friend and ancient lands guide, Arie. He and his family are now residents of Tel Aviv, but his heart never departs Jerusalem. The turmoil erupting within and around Jerusalem doesn’t just concern or upset him. It brings him pain. I asked him how he felt about the ongoing crises in the Holy Land. As I witnessed the agony in his face, I sorrowed that I had asked something so obviously intimate. I consider myself very patriotic, yet I had to acknowledge that I knew nothing of his attachment to his own homeland.

If Arie and other Jews through the ages have experienced an indescribable attachment to the Holy City, try to imagine the strength of John’s ties. He grew up on the shores of Galilee at the peak of Jerusalem’s splendor since the days of Solomon. Herod’s temple was one of the greatest wonders of John’s world. No Jew could behold her splendor without marveling. Even weeping.

John knew every wall and gate of the Holy City. He walked the lengths and breadths with the Savior Himself. He sat near Him on the Mount of Olives, overlooking its beauty. John was also part of the generation who witnessed the total destruction in ad 70. By the time Jerusalem fell, John probably was already stationed in Ephesus, but the news traveled fast, and the sobs echoed louder with every mile. The grief of the diaspora mixed with the unreasonable guilt of not having died with the city surely shook their homesick souls.

Then how his heart must have leapt upon seeing the new Jerusalem! There it was! Not just restored but created anew with splendor beyond compare. I wonder if John was weeping at the sight. Some people say that we won’t be able to cry in the new heavens and earth. Clearly we get at least one last good cry, though, since God will wipe away every tear! I cannot imagine that I will see my Christ, my God, and His heavenly kingdom with dry eyes. Our last tears, however, will no longer be those shed in mourning.