Approaching All Saints: What Do You See When You Look At the Sun?

Last updated on: October 28, 2010 at 12:08 pm by Christine Sine

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Approaching All Saints: What Do You See When You Look At the Sun? 2010-10-28T12:08:36+00:00 Christine Sine

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When the sun rises do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a gold coin? O, no, no, I see an innumerable company of the heavenly host crying ‘Holy, Holy’ Holy is the Lord God Almighty. (William Blake – a Vision of the Last Judgement)

I could not help but think of this today. This morning as the sun rose I looked out on a beautiful Seattle autumn morning – expecting that it will be the last for a while. The sky was tinged with pink and the mountains, shone in the early morning light, but as I looked out I too tried to see it with the eyes of vision, eyes that don’t just see the physical world but that are opened to the spiritual world as well.

So what do you see as you look out on the day? We are surrounded by a great host of witnesses and as we move toward November 1st and the celebration of All Saints Day, this is a great time to think about that. We don’t need to focus on the scary images associated with Halloween but look beyond with the vision that God gives us to the gathering of the mighty hosts of God’s people.

In many Christian traditions, icons are used to remind us of those who have gone before and of the clouds of witnesses that surround us, but we need reminders in our daily lives too of those that cheer us on, encourage and support us in all we do. So as you go through the day today, as you look out at the sun drenched, rain drenched or even snow drenched landscape look with new eyes. Imagine that you see the great clouds of witnesses rejoicing and singing before the throne of God

Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:

Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns
Let us be glad and rejoice and let us give honour to him. (Rev 19:6,7)

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