time in heaven

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Revelation 8:1-13. We're told that when Jesus breaks the seventh seal, there is silence in heaven for about thirty minutes.

That's strange, isn't it? Don't we understand heaven to be outside of space and time? How can there be time in heaven if it's outside of time?

In a way, though, it's reassuring. Because we don't know what heaven will be like, exactly, and thinking of it as an eternal "now" can kinda freak our brains out. So realizing that there is something as mundane and normal as thirty minutes of silence... it helps us to relate.

But what a silence it is. The kind of silence, I'll bet, in which you can hear your own heart beat.

We're in that kind of silence now, did you notice? That hush that comes over the Christians of the world as we await the great joy of Christmas...we call it advent.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.