The four living creatures are a really confusing sight to behold! To begin with, what in the world are they?! Okay, I guess I should say that they are totally out of this world. I mean, has anyone ever seen anything resembling them? Well actually, yes! Ezekiel saw something which he described in very similar terms. Isaiah also encountered these creatures in a vision. Isaiah called them seraphim and Ezekiel called them cherubim. So, it is quite clear that these living creatures are, in fact, angels. And they have a very special mission – to extol the majesty and holiness of God in his presence continually.
But you ask, how could any creature keep that up continuously? Wouldn’t it get boring after a while? Wouldn’t that be exhausting? But there is no “time” in eternity. There is only now. Past, present and future all exist simultaneously in eternity. So, there’s that.
Joni Eareckson Tada in her book, Heaven: Your Real Home, does a great job of describing what we would experience in heaven. On earth we get filled up, we get tired, we need a break, even from fantastic experiences. Not so in heaven. We can worship God without end there, and never get tired of it. We can enjoy chocolate cake and ice cream with each mouthful as delectable as the one before. We can talk and enjoy the presence of each other without end, as if we’d just reunited with old friends after a long separation. “I’m bored,” said no one in heaven – EVER!
Now let’s imagine that you are one of theses angels assigned to be in the closest proximity to God at all times. Here is God the Father, cascading his love, his wisdom, his essence to you all the time. You are awash in all that he is. And you are constantly and forever being blown away by something new about him that you never knew before. And every moment you’re experiencing his love in new and unfathomable depths and in ways you had never previously known. And there is no end to the discovery and the depths of his love. You see, God is inscrutable! There is no figuring him out! You would not be able to keep from exclaiming, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
Almost immediately, the twenty-four elders also become infected by the intoxicating tsunami of His love and the shockingly new knowledge the Father exudes and they strip off their gold crowns, stumble off their thrones in absolute amazement and fall down before the Father saying, “You are worthy!”
But you ask, how could any creature keep that up continuously? Wouldn’t it get boring after a while? Wouldn’t that be exhausting? But there is no “time” in eternity. There is only now. Past, present and future all exist simultaneously in eternity. So, there’s that.
Joni Eareckson Tada in her book, Heaven: Your Real Home, does a great job of describing what we would experience in heaven. On earth we get filled up, we get tired, we need a break, even from fantastic experiences. Not so in heaven. We can worship God without end there, and never get tired of it. We can enjoy chocolate cake and ice cream with each mouthful as delectable as the one before. We can talk and enjoy the presence of each other without end, as if we’d just reunited with old friends after a long separation. “I’m bored,” said no one in heaven – EVER!
Now let’s imagine that you are one of theses angels assigned to be in the closest proximity to God at all times. Here is God the Father, cascading his love, his wisdom, his essence to you all the time. You are awash in all that he is. And you are constantly and forever being blown away by something new about him that you never knew before. And every moment you’re experiencing his love in new and unfathomable depths and in ways you had never previously known. And there is no end to the discovery and the depths of his love. You see, God is inscrutable! There is no figuring him out! You would not be able to keep from exclaiming, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
Almost immediately, the twenty-four elders also become infected by the intoxicating tsunami of His love and the shockingly new knowledge the Father exudes and they strip off their gold crowns, stumble off their thrones in absolute amazement and fall down before the Father saying, “You are worthy!”
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