It's been an emotional week, just thinking about Gary, missing him, and remembering how special he was to me. Something broke the other day, that was special to him. It's a big crystal (2") that refracts the light beautifully. Gary bought it back in the 70's and hung it in our bedroom window. Every sunshiny morning, it cast rainbows on the walls. When we moved to our condo, it made rainbows here too. He'd say, "We have to get up when the rainbow gets to the doorway." He would sometimes stand in just the right spot to get the colors right on his mouth, or nose to be funny. Our girls remember too. He LOVED that crystal and we loved that he loved it. Well, finally last week, the wire broke and it fell on the tile, leaving some big chips in it. I need to rehang it, and hopefully it will make even more of a light-show now.
But I got to thinking about something really neat. I was reading in Revelation 4 this morning. It describes the throne room of God. In his vision, the apostle John described the appearance of God , in terms of precious gems. "Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone (clear as crystal in Rev. 21:11) and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance."
and MORE...
"and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
Such amazing, heavenly sights and sounds were hard for John to describe. Right now, Gary's eyes and ears are filled with the actual glories of God. I'm comforted with the little memory of how he loved the light and colors displayed by his crystal, but thanks to the written Word of God, I get to know just a little of what Gary is experiencing right now, and that is even better.