Streets of Gold in the Economy of God

By James Tealy • Nov 9th, 2009 • Category: Artists in Residence

I still hear Christian artists singing about “the mansion waiting for me along a street of gold just beyond a pearly gate.” It is a picture I am only beginning to understand…a picture I think I have misunderstood for too long.

Earlier this year I walked the streets of Thessaloniki, Greece with students who were sharing the hope of Jesus in that place. One afternoon we were “speed walking” from one event to the next and I became transfixed on the sidewalk beneath our rushing feet. I realized we had been pounding out the miles on top of ancient marble slabs. The sidewalks were paved with the very substance my wife and I had been pricing for new countertops in our kitchen (too expensive for an indy singer-songwriter unfortunately.)

What held great value in our suburban American world held little value on the streets of Greece. To my left a man spits as he waits impatiently for a bus. Ahead on a stoop, a beggar is sprawled out with an empty cup outstretched. The marble sidewalks bear the stains of years of thoughtlessness. My thoughts wandered to heaven.

All of my life I have assumed that images of “streets of gold” from Revelation 21 were intended to impress us about the opulence of that heavenly place. Instead, is it possible the statements of Revelation 21 are meant to teach us what is of value in heaven and what is not? Is the writer of Revelation trying to convince us that the streets and buildings are highly valued in heaven? I don’t think so. Instead what is pictured is a place where the things we so highly value here, all that sparkles and shines, hold little value there. We will step on it, build with it, walk on it, disregard it.

I am certain that there is great treasure in heaven but it is not the pirates’ booty of our childhood fantasies. Instead, “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:22-23). The heaven I am longing for is not a place where I will stacked up with prizes. It is a place where we will finally experience the unbroken presence of the ultimate prize, the ultimate gift, the costliest jewel – Jesus.

Does it Resonate with you?

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