Revelation 21:1, 4 (NRSV)
Read Revelation 21:1, 4 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 21Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Verse 4he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
Devotion
Ending a series of devotions with Revelation can be tricky. So often it's equated with predictions of end times. But promises actually overshadow predictions in Revelation. These culminate in the vision of the heavenly City of God, whose center is the majestic throne of God and the Lamb. Part of the promise is this: "... and the sea was no more!"
The absence of the sea signals an absence of chaos, the forces of evil, the source of monsters and sin we have seen in our water-marked journey through Scripture. God will contain the waters that threaten creation, banishing them as well as the monsters swarming within. Not only are external waters of chaos banished, but our internal and personal seas as well. Tears of pain, hurt and mourning will be dead to us.
I cannot imagine such a world, but God can. Zechariah 9:12 calls us to be "prisoners of hope." We live today, this Good Friday, captive to the promise that our chaotic seas will be no more.
Prayer
God of promise, as we weep at the foot of your cross, help us live in the hope of the day when we will have no more cause for weeping.
Amen.