Imagine a person who has only known darkness save for the light of a small, flickering candle flame. If asked to define light it would be this lone picture that would come to his mind. Then imagine that he is suddenly transported to a place where he can see the rising of the sun, its steady rising through the morning to its high point in the day and then following it until its final setting that night. And then imagine the darkness that he has known so well ripped apart by a panorama of street lights, the splendor of a fireworks display and the spectacle of a lightning storm. What would he feel about light?
Imagine another person whose world has been a windowless room all of his life, without a television or pictures to show him the scenes of the world outside. Now he is suddenly taken from his room to the Grand Canyon. With dusk he now sees the sky fill with a thousand thousand stars stretching uncountable miles. What would he feel about distance?
Imagine another one whose ears have heard only his own solitary voice without even an echo hint at what a voice outside himself sounds like. He walks into a great cathedral and hears the quiet voices of a great choir in the distance as they sing in perfect harmony. As he walks closer to the front the voices begin to crescendo and now joined by a massive pipe organ there is a thundering rendition of a great anthem. The organ and choir combine to fill every crevice of the cathedral while the stone walls and floor reverberate to add more to the dignity of this symphony of voice and pipe. What would he feel about music?
Imagine the man whose idea of an ultimate weapon is a primitive club. He swings the club confident that it will help him meet any foe. Hearing a noise outside his home he steps out to find all his horizon filled with soldiers, tanks, artillery pieces and weapons of every description. When he looks to heaven for help it is only to see the sky dark with helicopters, jets and missiles. What now would he feel about power?
Now we who live in a land of twilight and shadows, marred by the Fall with dimmed vision and dull hearing, think of Heaven. In an instant we will be transported to a place where sin cannot be, where holiness is the atmosphere, where songs are sung that cause the very foundations to sway. The presence of God that we now so poorly sing about will be the atmosphere we breathe. After walking through this life that is an overgrown swamp where every step is a struggle, the sight of what is ahead obscured by the growth around us, we will step into the clear openness of God’s glory. It is our hope. It is our destiny.