Every day as we walk the streets here in South Asia we are bombarded with requests for money from beggars. We cannot help them all. We cannot lift them from poverty…And at times the temptation comes to gaze into heaven, and to wonder if the transcendent God, who is over time and space, who is in charge of his creation, is actually invested in what is going on…And then we turn and look, as the elder puts a hand on John’s shoulder, and on ours. There is One who is worthy after all. Because the One who is transcendent, holy and distinct, has remembered his creation.

There is so much decay around us. Everywhere. Each one. Declining health, immense poverty, death, broken relationships, unloved children, shame, starvation, mental scarring, oppression, broken systems, corrupt systems, non-existent systems. And that is a short-list for our corner of this globe. Each nation has its own list.

Maybe we just grow numb to it with time. Sometimes it’s a defence mechanism to protect our own hearts, for they were not designed to bear the burden of the entire world. On our best days we invest deeply in trying to stem the overwhelming current of entropy. On our worst we just hang our heads and weep.

To be sure, this world is filled with glory. Glimpses of which pull the heart to a greater reality, a fuller hope. A dream that seems too good to be realised at times. The beauty of the mountains, the expanse of a star-filled sky, the camaraderie of friends, the warmth of a good home. These are the roses among the weeds, the beauty among the ashes. And yet, even at their most beautiful, something about them feels like a haunting memory rather than a present reality. No matter how hard we try, even when we cannot verbalise it, we cannot but yearn for what has been lost.

How did John feel while he sat on the Island of Patmos? A glorious vision of Christ, but then a rebuke to the churches amongst whom he had laboured. Did his heart turn over in turmoil? But his thoughts were soon taken elsewhere. The heavens are opened, and he peers into a glory that few had ever seen. He is enraptured with the very throne of the One who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, the inhabitants of which are as but grasshoppers in his sight. A throne. An authority. A good and right rule over the affairs of the world.

Suddenly a sound pierces the air:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

And again:

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

This majestic Lord of the cosmos, is the transcendent God. He exists outside of time and history, without beginning and without end. Separate to his creation in unique holiness, yet ruling over it. He is vaster than the heavens themselves. He is Creator, distinct from his creation.

Here is glory and beauty like no other. And yet an overwhelming distinction between this scene and the world that John inhabited, where his brothers and sisters whom he loved beyond measure, were suffering for their faith.

He looks up and sees that the One on the throne is holding a scroll, the scroll of history, the telling of the days of this world, the story of the good, the bad and the ugly. Of course the transcendent One on the throne holds it. It is his story to tell. His eternal will to be accomplished.

But then search begins for one who is worthy to open the scroll. Who can actually take this weighty responsibility and deal with what they find there? Will this be another case of searching for a king of old, when Saul had been anointed and yet did not wish to take responsibility for the nation? His reign had left an aching hole in Israel. They needed someone greater who could actually carry out in Israel, the decrees of the eternal God in heaven. One who shared his heart.

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