The Heavenly City on the Perishable Planet Earth

4/1/2000

(from a sister…….)

Come with me as I tell you the tale of my journey into the most beautiful place…….

I was a traveler, new to travels, but old to thoughts, when I followed the road that led to a city surrounded by a most exceptional Wall. The city itself was not yet known to most of the people where I had come from; that is, they knew it was ‘supposed’ to exist, but they did not know that it did, in fact, exist at present. So I happened upon this Glorious place, quite by accident, if my own knowledge of it were needed to grant me access. As I rounded a bend in the path I trod, I looked up to see a Wall that caused me to stop and stare. Then I began to walk along the Wall, examining and touching and trying to determine the nature of its substance. It was unlike any other I had ever seen before, though most often cities are no longer surrounded by walls at all. There were innumerable gouges and scars which told me that obvious abuse had been done to the incredible Wall in what could only have been attempts to forcibly enter though I knew not why. Finally, I turned around and walked back toward the city gate, quite eager to obtain entrance and find out more about this Wall and the city inside.

At the gate I was greeted by a man who looked like any other, though his eyes were clear like the sea and his smile filled me as though I had just been fed a grand feast. As we talked about my entrance, I was amazed that he spoke as one much older than he appeared. I asked if I may enter, saying that I might be able to sell one of my belongings if anyone should want it. The man smiled and stated that though the inhabitants of this city had need of nothing, I could indeed pass inside for he saw my heart to be honest and my goal to be Truth. Two men, again like any others, but much like the first, led me inside the city.

Inside I again studied the Wall—for every gash on the outside there was only the glare of the smooth, undisturbed shine on the inside. When I asked the men about the Wall they said it was made of a substance unknown to men outside the city, and was in every way indestructible. As we moved through the streets, I began to feel as though I had entered not just a city but another world altogether. There were all the normal sounds of humans, laughing and crying and whispers and shouts, but something unspoken held me in my place. As I watched, and by now it seemed we had walked around the city for a few months, it was the way the people interacted that most captivated my deepest longings. Their tendencies towards each other were completely devoid of anything base or vile. Even in the most desirable families outside this city, there remains jealousy and resentment, competitive tendencies to divide and destroy, and easily-swayed loyalties rooted in the comfort of the moment. Here I saw what I could only have imagined could ever be! The women appeared to be taking care of each other and all the children willingly, from deep within, not only as they were bound to responsibility. And the men were all absorbed in some form of work, though each one stopped immediately when his name was called to assist where a man was needed.

It is a place where the people are so tightly woven in life and thought and heart that you could be as comfortable one place as another. It was not the absence of problems or pain that made it so, for both of these were present, I saw. Yet it was the essence of their lives together, some quality of commitment, some ability to supercede the natural depravities of humankind, some determination to never let anyone be at odds with another at heart, that made them such a species rare. They were consumed by the desire to protect each other and encourage the growth of each other, and to a child there was a fierce allegiance that could not be defeated by any amount of discomfort. There were no rivalries nor divisions, large or small. They were as much one as they were many, which seemed quite impossible yet I have now seen that it is so!

I asked the men how it came to be so, and they said one word that ignited my soul: “Jesus!”

“He is our King, and yours too, truth be told. We live in peace while the world lives in strife because we acknowledge the King, while those outside the Wall try to ignore Him and His Reign. Without Him, they remain in hopeless despair and hostile hatred for each other, though even this they cannot see. We have often tried to help many understand, because we know that He wants to draw all people close to Him so that He may care for them as He does for us, but most refuse to acknowledge Him because they prefer to hold their lives in their own inadequate, feeble, and empty hands, and by so doing they make themselves forever bound to misery and fear and loneliness.

If only you would look honestly into His eyes, you will see that He is your heart’s desire, just as Together, we are His! He is not just a King to us, He is our Father, our Friend, our Brother, our Protector, Redeemer, the Lover and Keeper of our souls, the Hope of our every moment whether success or failure, and to be held by Him is to be Loved, and for the first time ever to be given the capacity to also Love. So you see, this city is the Place where Jesus is given the room in each person’s heart to display His abilities to forgive and transform and Build. And He has been waiting for you, so that He could show you this, too.”

-sl