Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Book of Revelation: No one ever goes in. No one ever comes out.

ROUS, fire, and darkness...um, Westley says no. At least that's what I thought until today. It turns out that what seemed like the Fire Swamp was actually Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, minus Tim Burton and the Little People.

In 10th grade, I decided I wanted to read the Bible from cover to cover. Now here I am, right in the middle of the very book I've been afraid of since the beginning and guess what? It's not so scary anymore. In fact, it may have taken six years, but now that I'm here, I've discovered my new favorite scripture:

Revelation 7:14-17

14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

I've never heard a more beautiful description of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Our Savior has the power to make us completely clean if we'll just let Him. Guys. We just have to let Him. What a great big Brother. I know there is not a thing I could ever do to thank Him for saving my life, but the very least I can do is "serve him day and night".

Ok, I'm almost done. But none of what I just said matters at all if we don't do something real about it. What does "serve him day and night" even mean? To me it means loving every person the way the Lord loves him or her. It means loving that lady who cuts me in line at the store because maybe she didn't even see me and wants to be on time for work. It means loving that annoying little boy screaming at his mom for an ice cream cone because if I could get away with that at this age, I'd probably do the same thing. It means loving my mom enough to put down my book for a second and helping make dinner. It means loving my dad enough to make my own money so he doesn't have to do all the work. It means ignoring every "I'm doing fine" and digging deeper because there's always more to it than that. It means calling Grandma, remembering someone's name, or picking up a friend's favorite candy, just because. It means loving no matter what.

Who knew that four little verses could teach so much? Yeah, The Book of Revelation was pretty intimidating. But then Charlie walked inside and now he gets chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh and guess what? Now you're Charlie too, ya lucky duck.

Love, Kelli

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