The Great Cause For A Gathering

Revelation 7:9 – After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white and held palm branches in their hands. (NLT)

Last winter, I received an attractive postcard in the mail with a picture of pipers on the front, an antique model car, and crowds of people. The words inscribed across the front were, "Cause for a gathering", and when I turned the card over, its printed message invited me to join thousands of people to celebrate a landmark in Canadian history: the completion of a unique engineering feat, the opening of the deepest causeway in the world: the Canso Causeway.

When I considered the invitation, I was reminded of another invitation — another "cause for a gathering" — found in the Bible. On the front of the invitation is a picture of God's Son, Jesus, being born in a stable, coming to earth to show us the way to heaven. Another picture shows Him hanging on a cross, taking on the penalty for our sin. Within the Bible's pages, God has sent out a personal invitation to us, encouraging each one of us to join the celebrations He began planning thousands of years ago for the time when we will join Him and His Son in heaven. At that reunion, there will be a great multitude, so large that no one will be able to count the numbers. People will come from all walks of life; every nation and every tribe will stand before God, singing praises and celebrating our arrival "home". However, like the gathering at the Canso Causeway this past summer, in order to be included in God's celebration, we need to accept the invitation and make plans to go.

Prayer: Dear God, help us to accept Your invitation to join You and the great gathering of believers in heaven. Amen.

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