Perseverance and Hope for the Future

[234 words] “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). In so many ways, the very end of the Bible is a mirror-image of its beginning. Because of sin, man in Genesis is separated from God’s presence and is kept from reaching out to eat of the Tree of Life; in Revelation, that access is restored and intimate fellowship with God along with it. The account of the church, then, is really about man walking with God. It took a perfect God taking on flesh and living a sinless life as man to become our Savior and sacrifice to do so. The vehicle God chose for His restored people is the church, or His body, or His bride. In Chapter 19, we have the Bridegroom, the Word of God, figured as a rider…