He Reigns
Bible reading
‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,’ and ‘every eye will see him, even those who pierced him’; and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’ So shall it be! Amen.
– Revelation 1:7 (NIVUK)
Devotional
We live in a fast world. Things go speeding past us all the time and we hardly notice. Cars are built better and faster, our internet moves at lightspeed, and we’re impatient when the microwave takes 2 minutes to warm up our meals!
We may long for a slower life, but our consumption of speed tells a different story. We’re so used to fast things that anything slow frustrates us. We want to see the world but we live as if we don’t have the time to look! But what if we did? What if we would just stop and look, what would we see?
Would we see the ocean’s many colours – all the blues and greens and greys? Would we see the patterns of the waves and the artwork they leave on the sand as they return to their origin? Would we see the vastness of the sky? Would we recognize the birds that flew high above us, the names of the various clouds that passed by, the stars that we would see in the night sky? Would we see people and not just a blur of colour walking by? Could we tell what colour their eyes were, or if they seemed happy or sad?
To look, to really look, you must stop. You must allow your eyes to adjust and focus, to fix on the subtleties of colour and light, moods and feelings. Too often we think we don’t have time to do these things – there is so much to do, and time is flying by! But wait! Stop! look!
That is what Jesus told John. “Look”. Over and over again in the book of Revelation we are told to “look”. How can we see if we never look? How can we understand if we never stop, look and see? So much is happening around us and it’s not going to change. We will not become less busy or move slower unless we make a decision to do it.
So today, hear the words of Jesus to John and to His churches: “Look, I am coming”. One day, when we look, we will discover that He is not coming, He is here! The world may be moving quickly, but don’t forget to slow down, to look around you, and to reflect deeply on what you see and hear. Look!
– Connie Main Duarte
This devotional is part of a series that helps us navigate the texts of the book of Revelation with fresh eyes. A new devotional every Saturday.
These devotionals are available in Portuguese and in English.