April 21 | Revelation 5:11-14

Pam Mann
Apr 21
2 min read

DAILY READING

REFLECTION

Worthy is the Lamb!

By Pam Mann

As a child, I was taught that every Sunday worship service is practice for what every creature will do at the end of time. Our life is richer now, Mrs. K, the children’s choir director would explain, because we can taste-test the wonder of heavenly praise when we worship God in church.

As an adult, I lived some years in west Africa. One Sunday morning, as I was leaving the church building with the dismissal of the first service, a spry elderly woman named Marie Peetel was just arriving. Marie, though stooped and missing teeth, could outdance everyone at the harvest offering procession and was never silent when others hedged on the truth. Marie said to me in the market language, “Ah, you all have done your work.” She

was referring to our time in worship. “Now is our time to do the work!” How did this uneducated woman in the rural African savannah know that liturgy means work, the public work of the believers praising God?

Then, in the 1990s, early one Sunday morning at the Lytham Road campus, I saw Mr. D pick the ringing phone in the front lobby. It was so early that only a few people were in the building. I heard Mr. D give service times to the caller. Pause. Mr. D stared at the receiver and then spoke into it, “Anything special happening this morning? What? We are gathering to worship the living God!”

Why do I remember these fragments of conversation decades later? Maybe because they all point to the massive moment of worship which all creation awaits. Mrs. K, Marie Peetel, and Mr. D all delight in the vision of Revelation 5. It’s worship of the living God, the victorious Lamb of God, with all the ranks of heaven assembled! Every creature of earth and sea will offer praise to our God. Every hymn ever sung, every prayer ever breathed, every litany ever uttered finds its culmination in this cosmic climax around the throne. No one will be inhibited or feel shy. No one will hold back. If the twenty-four elders are falling down on their knees, even the most reserved among us will cut loose in exultation.

“Worthy is the Lamb!” We can hardly imagine the vastness of that assembly, the thunder of their praise, and the sincere depth of their awe. But we can experience its foretaste now, both in our corporate worship and in our private quiet time with the Lord.

PRAYER

Worthy are You, precious Lamb of God, to receive our praise. Train our hearts to worship. You know as we will when the vision of Revelation 5 comes into fulfillment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAM MANN

I first joined UALC when my husband (then my fiancé) and I were college students involved in youth ministry. God has used UALC to nurture our family’s faith, even in our years outside the U.S. I’ve participated in UALC ministries with kids, art, prayer, exercise, ESL, and Bible teaching. I do all the fun church things.