P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

HARMONY FOREVER

At first Dad thought it was an April Fool’s Joke . . . and not a very nice one. When you’re wearing your heart on your sleeve, and watching CNN 20 hours a day, and sitting by the phone just waiting for a call with news – ANY news – it makes you jump when someone says to you: “Hey, they got your daughter out. She’s no longer a POW.” And yes, it was April 1, 2003, and yes, Greg Lynch, Sr., just about jumped through the roof when he and Deadra finally learned the truth: their 19-year-old daughter, Jessica, had been rescued.

Back on the 23rd of March, Pfc. Lynch’s 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company had been involved in heavy combat in Nasiriyah, an Iraqi name we’ve all come to know. She and others were captured, and Jessica had been held at Saddam Hospital, where she was suffering from broken legs, a broken arm, and possibly gunshot wounds. But now, more than a week later, on April Fool’s Day, U.S. commandos, acting on a CIA tip, were able to slip into the hospital and rescue her. With an American flag folded across her chest, the slender young soldier was airlifted to safety in Germany, where she received medical treatment.

And boy, did the town of Palestine, West Virginia, celebrate! Fireworks. Bells ringing. The local fire department pulled every truck they had out onto the street, and just began blowing the sirens. Everyone in town had goosebumps. The 5-year-olds at the local kindergarten had all adopted Jessica as pen pals, so they were giddy with excitement. The homeroom teacher had been about to mail the young Pfc. a collection of letters and drawings from the kids when the 507th was ambushed at Nasiriyah; now that pack of mail is waiting for when she comes home.

And friend, here at the finish line of our series, BEHOLD, HE COMES!, I think that’s really about all we have left to say. What will it be like when Jesus comes, and we know we’re safely home? No more war. No more danger. No more separation. No more e-mailing, or waiting for a phone call that might bring the most devastating news in the world. All of that will be gloriously over.

In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey joins us in lamenting how Revelation paints such a bleak picture of these last days. Wars and earthquakes, famines and floods, horrors and hurts.

“But Jesus,” he writes, “gives a personal preview of how the world will be restored, by reversing the deeds of the Four Horsemen [of the Apocalypse]: He made peace, fed the hungry, healed the sick, and brought the dead to life.”

Have you ever thought of those brief, wonderful years of Jesus’ ministry as a picture of heaven? People were sick, and He healed them. A woman who had been bleeding for 12 YEARS came up behind him. She was desperate. She was broke. She’d been feeling just lousy for all those long years, spending her money on useless “cures.” And when she touches just the hem of His garment, BOOM! She instantly is well. Not only is she well, but her whole body is rejuvenated. She realizes in just a twinkling of an eye that everything is all right now. It’s such a surge of healing power that even Jesus notices. “Wait a minute,” He says. “What happened back there?” Everywhere Jesus went, hurts were erased, funerals disrupted, bad parties turned into good ones. Sinners who felt guilty were told they were loved and accepted. That’s what the coming of Jesus means.

Speaking of Jessica Lynch and great rescues, did you know that the wonderful “Second Coming” word, parousia, was often used in Bible times to describe the triumphant procession of a Roman general as he and his victorious forces paraded through a city. The war is over. The prisoners are liberated. The bombing has stopped. The enemies are gone forever. Peace and joy and celebrating aren’t just the order of the day – they’re the order of forever. From now on! It’s no wonder that THIS parousia, this victory, is described in the book of Titus like this:

“While we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

And friend, as we struggle through this always bloody time in history, where one war is followed by the next one, think about one more thing with me: permanent peace. Not just peace, where the bombs stop for a little while as tyrants and strongmen regroup, but PERMANENT peace. In his excellent commentary for the book of Matthew, William Hendriksen describes the glories of heaven, how everything will be new, all things transformed, and then adds these quiet words:

“This transformation will include harmonization. At present nature can be described as ‘raw in tooth and claw.’” We could add: “Apache helicopters and weapons of mass destruction.” He goes on: “Peace and harmony are lacking. But THEN all nature, gloriously transformed will, as it were, sing a symphony. There will be concord and harmony everywhere. There will be variation, to be sure, but a most-delightful blending of sounds so that the total effect will be unity. And the prophecy of Isaiah 11:6-9 will reach its ultimate fulfillment: ‘And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lay down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. . . . They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

Isn’t that beautiful? And remember, it’s going to be this kind of peace and harmony FOREVER. Soldiers can come home and unpack for good. Never again will our troops be deployed.

I’m sure you’ve noticed – and grieved over – the hard reality that in this most recent war, sincere American and British and Iraqi people just did not see the headlines and the realities the same way. We just didn’t. A lifetime of living in a certain country, under certain rules and regimes, made you think a certain way. What was liberation to some was invasion to others.

But when Jesus comes again, when all God’s children gather around His throne, and hear His voice in the unifying language of heaven, it truly will be harmony AND HARMONIZATION. “Sin and death no longer reign. Heaven now is ours to gain . . . forever. When Jesus comes to take us home at last.”