Holy Holy Holy

‘Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.’

Reading John’s description of the throne of God, I get the distinct impression that he’s overwhelmed. The translation I found online reads in one place “around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald”. A rainbow that looks like an emerald? He’s so taken aback that he doesn’t want to leave anything out, and a lot of it doesn’t make much sense. There are even four living creatures, “full of eyes”.

Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come. God is everywhere and everything and everything that will be and John is overwhelmed. Who can blame him? The man everyone thought would be King came as a servant and took care of them all. The man they thought they killed rose from the dead. The world they thought they knew was over. A pesky Jewish sect didn’t go away after all, and even before he saw the end, John sees the end.

Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.