Future Songs

Anna wants to know every single thing that’s going to happen, and she wants to know right now. She doesn’t like being surprised or held in suspense. Even when you tell her something is going to happen, she’ll ask about it constantly until it actually does happen. Christy and I never really say stuff like, “Hey, we might go to the park later on…” because Anna will be in our faces asking, “Are we going to park or not? Are you saying, “maybe” or are you saying we will go?” Then she’ll put the emphasis on different words in the sentence to see if we’ll divulge more information; like when she says, “So, are we going to the park?” or, “Are we going to the park?” Anna doesn’t even like it when we use the word ‘maybe’ because as she says, “Maybe is just a grown-up way to say “no” without hurting your feelings.”

A while back I asked a bunch of high schoolers what about their future they’d like to know if they could. All the girls said they wanted to know who they would marry. Most of the guys just wanted to know who would win the NCAA football championship. A few folks wanted to know what career they would have or how many kids they would have, but no one really wanted to know when or how they would die. Well, sort of… Sam wanted to know how Kolby would die, but I don’t think that’s really the same thing. No one wanted to know if they were going to get a life-changing illness or whether we would take part in another war as a nation. No one really wanted an early glimpse at what tragedies may await them, and I can understand that. I mean, our lives seem so uncertain already, our world is so volatile and there are so many crazy possibilities and things to be afraid of… why bring it on yourself?

This week I was reading about a time in the book of Isaiah that was probably full of chaos and fear. King Uzziah had just died, which was a big deal because he had been king in Judah for 52 years. For most people, there was no other king in living memory. As the news of his death broke, people were probably just running around like crazy wondering what would happen next… In chapter 6 of his prophecy, Isaiah says that in the midst of the chaos and fear of Uzziah’s empty throne, he saw another Throne… a Throne that was not empty. He says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

I love the song of the angels in these verses because they sing a song that is sort of outside of time. It’s true now, and yet not fully true yet, though it will be soon. John 12 tells us that when Isaiah saw this vision, he was seeing Jesus’ glory and speaking about Him… These angels, outside of time sang about how the entire world is filled with the glory of Jesus. This is something that will happen. They sing it now, and we see a world full of pain, injustice and unrighteousness, but the song of hope the angels sing is coming true one day. He will come soon, victorious over wrong and wickedness, binding up the broken-hearted and filling the whole world with His glory. We may not know everything that’s going to happen in the future, but we know one thing that will happen for sure! In the midst of whatever chaotic mess we may fear, angels never cease to sing the song of faith that will one day soon be the ultimate truth, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!”