Sanctus

We are told that the angels tell each other, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord . . . .”  I’ve heard it suggested that we too will spend part or all of our time (if there is time) in the hereafter talking about God, telling each other how holy He is.

To me that always seemed (at best) a great abstraction.  If we already know that God is holy, what’s the point of telling each other what we already know?

I went to a Bible study this evening.  We read Colossians 1:3-23.  At the end of the discussion, the leader asked us what parts of the passage we found particularly encouraging; one student pointed to the end, and another to the beginning: verse 5, “the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel”, and verses 21-22, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation . . . .”

We already knew what the whole passage said; the leader had read it aloud to us, and we all had copies of it sitting in front of us.  Yet it was possible to know it more.  When the other members of the group called our attention to those verses, and I meditated on them anew, I was encouraged by them as if for the first time.

Maybe that’s some small hint of what heaven will be like.  We know God in this life, and His kingdom is already within us, but we also continue to know Him more, ideally always growing in the knowledge of Him.  Now we see through a glass darkly, but in the next world we will see Him as face to face, and come to know Him fully, as He knows us.

God makes all things new; if we have already seen Him do so in this world, how much more will He in the world to come!