and
will settle disputes for many peoples.
They
will beat their swords into plowshares
and
their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation
will not take up sword against nation,
nor
will they train for war anymore.
(Isaiah
2:4)
What
was the last time you or your city “danced in the streets for joy”?
(Serendipity Bible
10th Anniversary Edition, page 1006).
My
deepest joy does not bring on dancing but tears. Thus, there is a
touch of sadness in it. For joy is testimony to pain. A scripture
passage that affects me this way is Revelation 21:1-4 (NIV).
A
New Heaven and a New Earth
Then
I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw
the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard
a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place
is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be
his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He
will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’
or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away.”
Similar
joy can come from seeing someone with severe handicaps embodying a
triumphant spirit and raw courage, or attending a wedding, or
witnessing the birth of a child, or even yes, watching a sentimental
movie in which with the apparent slimmest of chances kindness
prevails over cruelty. Such joy comes when hope prevails over great
odds.
Such
times are profoundly important because they validate hope and thus
take on the nature of a symbol. They are in the end what most folks
are willing to die for. We come to feel that cherished abstractions
are, after all, more concrete and real than anything else. Joy comes
when we see spiritual victory snatched from the jaws of nihilism.
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