"Isn't she beautiful!"

Revelation 21:2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things
than that of Abel.

Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:  May they prosper who love you.

Dear Father,

Your holy city, Jerusalem, has long been a battleground for power.  Situated at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, she is at the intersection of international conflict.  Yet, from the vantage point of the Mount of Olives, her beauty glistens and sparkles under a clear Israeli sky!  Only then, have I ever had a sense of what all of the fuss is about.  From a distance, she is beautiful.

But up close?  Blood has stained her altars and her streets.  Sacrifice to deities from Baal to Allah and Jehovah have disgraced and graced her holy mountain.  Yet, your undying love for Jerusalem persists.

Today, her streets are torn with division.  Old city, new city.  Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sectors. The constant specter of death hangs in the air.  Russian threatens. Hezbollah threatens. Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Isis threaten.

Yet the hope remains!

The persistent hope of the centuries, by Jews and Christians alike, is for a new Jerusalem. Jesus showed that hope to Saint John in the Revelation. "Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

"Here is faith! Even when Jerusalem was obliterated, the Jews never lost confidence that God would restore it" (William Barclay in The Revelation of John, vol. 2, 1959, p. 258).  And a new, more glistening and beautiful version than ever seen before is coming.  John exclaims, "Isn't she beautiful!" Like a pure bride, "adorned for her husband," Jesus Christ--The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world--she steps out of heaven's preparation room and gracefully approaches her Bridegroom!

So, I pray for the "peace of Jerusalem today," and the hope of a New Jerusalem for tomorrow.

Shalom and Amen.