Main Text: Revelation 7:9-17 (Acts 9:36-43; John 10:22-30)
Only humans have the ability to look beyond the present. All other creatures can only operate in the present tense. Humans alone are able to imagine. Imagination has received a bad name in the age of reason and science. We tend to only believe what we can see and can be proven. Faith stands as a challenge to reason but is grounded in the unique ability we have as children of God to believe in more than what we see. Revelation is a vision grounded in a reality quite different from what is seen. It is a call to a future that God has promised and secured through the life, death and resurrection of Christ our Lord. The vision of Revelation is a path that goes through the worst of what could happen, while leading us toward the best of what God has promised. The key to this vision is trust in God to lead and guide us through. We will go through ordeals and see many things that can shake us to our very core, but faith is Jesus Christ to lead us can keep us moving forward. We are called to be witnesses not to what we see, but the one who is leading us through what we see into what God has promised. How does faith affect the way you see? How does Christ guide you? We are called to be witnesses!