Hope
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. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:1-5 (NRSV)
STORY
Robert Lowry was born in 1826 in Philadelphia. He was a popular Baptist preacher and educator. He served churches in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. He was an excellent preacher and he considered preaching to be his primary vocation. He also wrote hymns, although he always considered that the composition of hymns was only a sideline profession, though today he is best remembered for the hymns that he composed.
Lowry is one of the few hymnologists who wrote both the lyrics and the melodies for his hymns. During his life he wrote over 500 hymns, and as the music editor for Biglow & Main, located in New York City, he oversaw the publication of 20 hymnals.
In 1861 Lowry became the pastor of Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn. In 1864, a few years after he began his pastorate, Northerners became anxious that the Civil War would be lost to the South. Compounding this anxiety was an epidemic that engulfed New York City. The misery of the plague was worsened by an unusual oppressive summer heat. To escape the heat many of the city’s residents gathered at the river.
Returning home after visiting the despondent parishioners who were milling about on the at the river’s edge, the pastor, exhausted, meditated on Revelation 22:1 which reads, “And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” The verse seemed to Lowry as a promise that friends and loved ones would be reunited again one day at “the beautiful river.” In minutes he wrote about laying down our burdens and having renewed hope for the future. That same evening, he sat at his parlor organ and fashioned an exuberant marching rhythm to go with the lyrics proclaiming, “Yes! We’ll gather at the river …” From this experience he composed one of his best-known hymns which is titled We Shall Gather at the River.
The first stanza and chorus reads:
Shall we gather at the river
Where bright angels feet have trod
With it’s crystal tides forever
Flowing by the throne of God.
(Chorus)
Yes, we’ll gather at that river
The beautiful, the beautiful river
Gather with the saints at that river
That flows by the throne of God.
DEVOTION
We learn in the closing Book of Revelation and the final chapter in the Bible, that the Kingdom of God is a restored Garden of Eden. Creation is once again as God intended it to be – a place of peace and harmony. As a river ran through Eden’s garden, the kingdom will have a river, though this will be a river of eternal life. The fruit of the Eden that brought death and destruction and evil, has been transformed into the fruit of the kingdom, twelve different kinds of fruit, one for each month of the year, as there will be no want. The leaves on the trees on the banks of the river of life are for the healing of the nations, as there will be no borders, only one people. There shall be no more darkness of evil, only an eternal light of joy as the ever-present light of God will shine eternally. We will forever be God’s chosen people as He claims us for His own, placing His name on our foreheads. And what has ever been denied to us since the Fall, we will now be able to see the face of God.
This is the kingdom that is to come. This is the kingdom that we long for. This is the kingdom of our hope. Though, for those who believe, it is our kingdom today, as Jesus prayed and proclaimed, and as I could only learn from my grandmother’s King James Version of the Bible, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Those of us who live in the presence of Jesus will this day and every day have a foretaste of God’s kingdom that is to come in its fullest at the end times.
What has always inspired me regarding the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Revelation is what theologians have come to call “The Unfinished Sentence.” In the opening pages of the Bible, in the first book, the Book of Genesis, because of our disobedience we were cast out of the Garden of Eden and forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree of life. So much so that God prevented our access to the tree by guarding the gate to the tree with cherubim and a turning flaming sword. In the closing pages of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, we are allowed access to the tree of life. Creation has been restored. We have been redeemed. We have eternal life. The sentence is now finished.
Points to Ponder
Ø What does gathering at the river mean for you
o For me: It is to have Christian fellowship.
Ø For those who know Jesus we live in the shadow of the kingdom so how can we partially restore the Garden of Eden until the kingdom comes in its fullness
o For me: We must live a life that emulates Jesus.
Ø What does the unfinished sentence mean for you
o For me: It means by faith and grace I have been saved from my sins. It also means that those of us who live in the presence of Jesus will this day and every day have a foretaste of God’s kingdom that is to come in its fullest at the end times.
Please share other Points to Ponder so I can update my list
Please share your thoughts with me – if you desire I will publish them for others to read anonymously or first name only or your entire name as you choose
Weekly book suggestion:
When Hell was in Session
By Jeremiah Denton
July 18, 1965. Struck by a missile, a jet plane piloted by Jeremiah Denton came crashing to the ground in a ball of flames, setting the stage for seven and a half years of captivity in Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi, Vietnam, better known as the Hanoi Hilton. There, along with seven hundred other Navy and Air Force airmen, he suffered isolation, malnutrition, disease, and torture. Denton, like the others, endured the trauma by maintaining a sense of fellowship, even though incarcerated in solitary confinement, it was sustained by coded taps through the prison walls. Each airman was especially encouraged by a reassurance from his comrades to continue to have faith in God. This is a book of courage, determination, patriotism, and faith,