“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.”
--Revelation 22:1
The Tree of Life returns to the Biblical story – from the first chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, this tree stands at the beginning and the end of the story. However, rather than standing as a tree within a garden now it’s a tree that springs out from within the city of God – truly an oasis amid the urban landscape of creation.
One thing I learned early in coming to Palms was that the property we sit on is zoned residential, and because of this there is a higher percentage of the land that is required to be permeable (water can flow in and out… in other words – it can’t all be paved and built upon with concrete, wood, and bricks) than would be the case if it was zoned commercial or industrial.
Reading the final chapters of Revelation I’m struck that the (re)New(ed) Jerusalem is the re-zoning of creation as the garden springs up from within creation to overtake the out-of-control commercialization/industrialization of our lives.
Our cities won’t pass away… but creation will overtake them and make them whole – breathing, verdant, permeable landscapes of life and love and goodness and grace.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment