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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, \u201cLook! God\u2019s 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. \u2018He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death\u2019 or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.\u201d (Revelation 21:3-4)

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Yesterday\u2019s sermon talked about how the Song of Songs looks forward to the restoration of the relationship we had with God and one another in the Garden of Eden.\xa0 Some of that picture is captured again here in Revelation 21.

It\u2019s the culmination of the Bible\u2019s long love story\u2014the story of God\u2019s passionate pursuit of his people.\xa0 At the end of all things, all of our anger, frustration, sadness and shouting at God\u2019s apparent absence and silence melts away in the blessed embrace of a long-lost lover\u2019s reunion.\xa0 At long last, God\u2019s dwelling place is here, with us.\xa0 He comes home and so do we: close enough to touch as he wipes the tears from our eyes.\xa0 Never to be separated again.

Not only that, but the creation and our very bodies are renewed to fullness of life, no longer knowing pain, disease, decay, or death: only the vibrant living joy of life itself.\xa0 And with it: intimacy.\xa0 Love.\xa0 Vulnerability without shame.\xa0 Knowing and being known, seeing and being seen, and still loving and being loved even though we are fully known and fully seen.\xa0 God\u2019s perfect love finally drives out all fear on that day as we find ourselves finally at rest and peace. \xa0\xa0\xa0

This full depth of intimacy we were created to know and experience only exists in the first and the last two chapters of the Bible, with only glimpses and hints in between: like in the Song of Songs, the best pictures of the prophets, or in the presence, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus.\xa0

But even now, I think we still catch glimpses of that day when we\u2019ll be reunited with Christ.\xa0 Maybe those glimpses are further and fewer between in these days of pandemic lockdown, stuck at home or out with half our faces covered, but I think they\u2019re still there.\xa0

C.S. Lewis talked about those glimpses as something we might call nostalgia.\xa0 A song that transports us to a different place, if even just for a moment.\xa0 A scent of a flower or fresh baking that brings us back to a home we haven\u2019t seen in ages.\xa0 A connection with someone, however brief, that melts our anxieties and fears away.\xa0

Sometimes it takes some work to attend to those moments to see in them a glimpse of that long-lost intimacy we really long for, and to let that fleeting moment do its work in us to lift our eyes to Christ and his coming.\xa0 But that\u2019s the intimacy our hearts pine after and that all those moments and all our lives point forward to.\xa0

When you catch them\u2014through the Spirit, at the Lord\u2019s Super, in a song or a call from an old friend\u2014savour them, and let them draw your heart to prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, Come.\xa0

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