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December 7 I
was forced to stay in today due to the bitter sleet and a newly acquired head-cold.
I couldn’t sleep last night, so at about five in the morning , after I had
tossed and turned and counted Czech sheep, I made a pot of coffee and decided
to open the Revelation. And I was shocked. Never have I read anything so compelling, and exciting, and scary, and hopeful in all my life. I kept thinking, why am I just now reading this book? Scratch that. This is no book. This is a letter, sent by some wild-eyed Prophet-Pastor named John to a group of churches about what is, what was, and what is to come. What’s so shocking is that it claims to be about the real world. And for all these years I’ve been ignoring it, thinking that reality is, so to speak, down here. As I read, I found myself wanting to stop and ponder what was going on. There were a couple of occasions when I thought about skipping to the end so as to finish. But despite these urges to pause and skip, I kept on reading. After a couple of hours, I closed the book; the last word was read. I was tired from reading, but even more I sensed something like a glorious cloud overwhelm me. I felt like dancing, singing, crying and resting all at the same time. I sensed heaviness, not like the sad burden that I have been carrying. I somehow knew, like never before, that the Spirit of the Lord was present — with me, in me, around and over me. I then fell asleep, resting peacefully for a couple of hours. I believe it’s the best sleep I’ve had in months. |
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Granted,
I was sleepy and not a little skeptical about this strange last book of the
Bible. But because I needed to
read it before my next language class, I plunged right in.