Chalk’s Throne
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”
Revelation 7:9
Chalk had worked in the small mailroom at Canyon Village in Yellowstone National Park for years. I met him the summer I worked in the Canyon Village cafeteria. He loved having good conversations with anyone who walked into his mailroom kingdom. I went by to see if I had gotten anything from the past week and, as I walked in, a man was talking to Chalk. As he headed out the door, the man handed Chalk a business card with a quote from Romans printed on it. After he left, Chalk and I began talking about religion.
He said, “I believe in God and Jesus, but I don’t call them by those names.” I asked him to explain. He said that we will all be surprised when we get to heaven because when we expect to see God, what we will actually see is ourselves. He told me that he believed that we are all God and that we are each our own judge.
I could have asked how we go from sinful beings to perfect gods, but I decided to stay quiet and just listen. It did get me thinking though. In Revelation, John had a vision of a throne. As his grand vision unfolds, we are told that the heavenly court is in attendance with saints and angels surrounding the throne. The frame continues to widen until we realize that everything in all creation has its attention fixed on the throne.
This vision helps me understand my place in the cosmos. I’m reminded that I don’t have to sit on that throne and I don’t have to make any judgments. It is freeing to know my place in this magnificent narrative. My friend Chalk saw himself on the throne and, whether he realized it or not, that is a heavy burden to carry.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light.” And because He is, we don’t have to be. We have our place in John’s vision, and it isn’t on the throne. Thanks be to God.
