Friday, All Saints Day, November 1, 2019
(All Hallows Tide)
Earlier, during the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon, Daniel had a dream and saw visions as he lay in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and this is what he saw. In my vision that night, I, Daniel, saw a great storm churning the surface of a great sea, with strong winds blowing from every direction. Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.
I, Daniel, was troubled by all I had seen, and my visions terrified me. So I approached one of those standing beside the throne and asked him what it all meant. He explained it to me like this: “These four huge beasts represent four kingdoms that will arise from the earth. But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever.” Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
Daniel may have been troubled by the
vision of a great storm churning life’s seas, but God’s reality gave him
comfort of the eternity of glory that overcomes this life’s uncertainties!
In Disney’s The Lion King,
Mufasa, the father lion and current king explains life’s meaning to his young son,
Prince Simba, how the gazelle eat the grass and live until the lion catches
(and eats) them. In turn, the lion grows
old and dies, and the bodies return to the ground to become grass for the gazelle
to eat. It is, says Mufasa, the
circle of life!Now that is neatly tied-up philosophy, but terribly empty theology. That “circle-cycle” may be true of the substance of which our physical bodies consist, but its focus is on the material, not the depth of meaning of the totality of God’s creation. We are not simply bodies; we are souls that inhabit bodies!
On his eightieth birthday, John Quincy
Adams was walking slowly along a Boston street. A friend asked him “How is John
Quincy Adams today?” The former
president replied graciously, “Thank you, John Quincy Adams is well, sir, quite
well, I thank you. But the house in
which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon the foundations. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it.
Its roof is pretty well worn out, its
walls are shattered, and it trembles with every wind. The old tenement is becoming almost
uninhabitable, and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon;
but he himself is quite well, sir, quite well.”[2]
The body in which the soul of John Quincy
Adams lived was crumbling, probably aching from early morning through each day,
and through each night. It was evidence
of the temporary nature of our current pilgrimage. However, the spirit of President Adams was
preparing, as he said, to live a quite well transition
from that run-down tenement to a home not built with hands;
John Quincy Adams was preparing to join the saints of all time and eternity.
It is in that reality we celebrate
today. For all the saints who have
trusted in Christ for their past, present, and eternity, we live not in a mindless,
endless circle of life that begins and ends with grass, eaten,
only to be eaten again and again; we live a life of growing into that
magnificent image of Jesus Christ, with whom the Church Triumphant
now rests.
For You Today
Let’s begin the day with a prayer of
remembrance and hope:
Father, we give You thanks for all the saints in Your care; we understand
by Your holy promises that they are more than quite well;
they thrive in overwhelming glory and are surrounded by your loving embrace.
We give thanks for every saint that has nurtured us in the faith,
drawing us closer to your side, leading us to be of Kingdom purpose and
usefulness. Having been sown in death,
they have risen in glory, and we praise Your name that we shall follow.
