Tomorrow, I will type “2025.” In 1969, Zager and Evans had a hit song, “In the Year 2525.” In the song, they despairingly sing of the human condition century by century: 2525, 3535, 4545, 5555, 6575, 7510, 8510 and, finally, 9595. It is a deeply distressing outlook looking back over the centuries:
In the year 9595
I’m kinda wonderin’ if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing
Now ‘been ten thousand years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what, he never knew, now man’s reign is through
But through eternal night, the twinkling of starlight
So very far away, maybe it’s only yesterday.
It’s a hauntingly beautiful song but so bleak and hopeless. But, for today, we are still in the year 2024. And as we close out one year and begin another, we revisit another perspective, which we considered just a couple days ago. Reading the words written by John, ours is not a fearful look to the future but one infused with hope and joy.
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 22:1-7).
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