Glimpses of the Kingdom

I tell you that many will come from east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 8:11

Revelation 21….all of it

A few years ago, one of the pastors who officiated our wedding got married himself. They actually had two weddings, one in their hometown and one at their church in Bellflower. I will never forget a specific moment during their Bellflower reception.

The guests at this wedding were mostly members and attendees of the church: elderly residents of the retirement home across the street. Straight-laced, faithful members who were born and raised in that church. Local teens, some with one foot in a gang and the other foot in the church, conflicted about which path they wanted to take but who had found love and acceptance in this pastor who pointed them to Christ. A core of solid, dependable twenty- and thirty-somethings who refused the “Christian Consumerism” stereotype, staying in a challenging church to serve because they felt called and believed in the ministries and community of that church. Random neighborhood kids who came for a free meal and love on Wednesday nights, attending the wedding without a parent-much like they attended church. Rich, poor, ill, healthy, young, old, rule-followers and rebels.

Dinner was finished, speeches were made, and the dancing began (dancing in a Baptist fellowship hall, I might add-which was awesome all on its own, but I digress). Ryan and I were catching up with some old friends in the back of the room, when I happened to glance at the “dance floor.” The kids and teens were spinning, flailing and dancing without a care in the world, several of them perhaps inappropriately. There were elderly guests in wheelchairs and walkers grooving and shaking (a few also perhaps inappropriately). Those straight-laced lifetime members I mentioned? Also dancing, smiling, laughing. All of them, together on a makeshift dance floor, conga line and all.

It was a Hot. Glorious. Mess. And one of the most profoundly beautiful moments I’ve ever witnessed.

In the middle of it all, I heard the Holy Spirit clearly whisper to my heart that this, this is what the Kingdom looks like. All children of the King, from every corner of the world and station in life, with perhaps nothing in common except their love for, and identity in, Christ. Which is actually everything.

I can’t help but expect that the Wedding Feast of the Lamb will feature a dance floor such as this: absolute celebration, joy, unity.  All of God’s saints, celebrating the end of tears, pain, illness, trauma, and death. Celebrating a new heaven and a new earth with no need for a sun because the presence and glory of God will fill it with light all hours of the day and night.

This glimpse of the Kingdom took me by surprise that night, and I stood there tearing up and just smiling at that crazy, joy-filled dance floor for long moments. I still choke up when I remember it.

Praise God that He gives us glimpses like this, like He can’t even stand to not let us see in little bits and pieces what we have to look forward to in His eternity. Pray for Him to reveal some of those glimpses to you, especially if you find yourself in a season of discouragement, cynicism, doubt, or trial. They will take your breath away and fill you with such hope.