Revelation 6:12-17 -
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake.
The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat
hair, the whole moon turned blood red,
and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop
from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich,
the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and
among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains
and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him
who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their
wrath has come, and who can stand?"
Sometimes…the creative brain of a “Nana” is no match for a
seven year old granddaughter. The video tapes she had been watching while I
read my bible before bedtime had been watched one too many times. She wanted me
to read her ‘Barbie’ books to her…but I explained that nothing kept me from
reading the bible before I went to sleep. That simply wasn’t a problem for
her…I should read that story to her…then we could read the Barbie books. I
should have known what God was up too…I might need a little ‘childlike’ faith
and interpretation to understand this chapter.
I warned her that this chapter was really scary…and read to
her about the first seal with the white horse. She was right when she said it
did not sound scary…this rider is the anti-Christ. He is a false prophet…meant
to trick us into thinking he is Christ returned. If he were scary…he sure
wouldn’t trick us. She thought the red horse from the second seal sounded a
little scary…her take on this one was that people should not fight. War was
just stupid…it killed people for stupid reasons. I couldn’t help but think she
was batting a perfect game so far….so we read on to see what he thought about
the third seal and the black horse. Her only experience with scales were when
she weighed herself…so I quickly explained that these amounts that were being
weighed were not fair. That little
button on the scales had been adjusted to make things weigh less that they
should….and people were not getting what they paid for at the store. Her mom
must have explained inflation before me…cause that made perfect sense to her.
The pale horse that represented death…from the 4th
seal…she said that was scary….and wanted to know when I would die. That sure
was hard to explain…but I tried to let her know that I did not think God was
finished with any of the people she loved so much…and that we all believed in
God and would go to Heaven some day and be together anyway…even when we did
die…so she let me keep reading. I had a hard time explaining to her what slain
people were doing under an altar…but had better luck explaining to her that
they were people who had always done the right thing…they died because they
always believed in Jesus…no matter what..and gave their life trying to tell
other people about him. The puzzled look had me furthering this weak analogy by
telling her it was like when somebody took the blame for something they
did…even when they knew it would get them in trouble..or hurt…or even died
sometimes for something that wasn’t wrong at all. My adult brain was thinking more about how
they were all crying out to God for justice ..and he just told them to ‘wait a
little longer.’
She quickly told me that the sixth seal….was super
scary…except for the sun turning black.
She said that sounded like a solar eclipse…but had no clue why the moon
would ever turn red. She said she never wanted to be in an Earthquake that
big…and I won’t soon forget the worried look on her face as she processed how
terrible Earth would look after all those stars hit us. She did not want to
live in a cave…she was too scared of the dark...and didn’t know how we would
take enough food and stuff to live on with us. I am kind of glad she did not
really listen to the part where they were calling out to the rocks and
mountains that had been removed from their places on the Earth…to kill them and
put an end to the suffering of this horrible day….and I couldn’t help but think
to myself that I hope we aren’t as close to this day as some people think…and
that all my family is already in Heaven…and will already be enjoying the glory
of God….for I think Jamie got pretty close to most of the symbolic message
embedded in this chapter… and I just don’t want to be around when it comes
true.
Father..I thank you for the ears and heart of the little
girl you gave me to help me understand that even when I don’t understand
everything about your word that I read…that I need to take it seriously. Help
me today to embed this awful picture of the world into my heart and work harder
to share its message with the ones that are lost. Help me not to be selfish and
wish to be gone…but to let it create a passion in me to save all the people you
lead me to that need your love in their heart to survive this horrible day.
Amen
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