check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zCsFvVg0UY

Anyone remember it? If you do, then you’re declaring yourself of a certain vintage. I would have been 15 years old when it first aired. A Christmas commercial (they still called it Christmas then) . . . a Coca Cola commercial . . . a make you feel warm and fuzzy inside commercial. “I’d like to build the world a home and furnish it with love . . . I’d like to see teach the world to sing in perfect harmony . . . I’d like to see the world for once all standing hand in hand . . . that’s the song I hear, let the world sing today . . . ” And who knew? If only everyone would drink Coke, we just might get a little closer to world peace . . . to world harmony . . . to all voices singing the same song. Well, Coca Cola ain’t the “secret sauce” to all peoples singing in unity . . . it isn’t the grand theme that will unite the world . . . but this morning, I was stirred by what will . . .

“And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire–and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.'” (Revelation 15:2-4 ESV)

“For all nations will come and worship You” . . . that’s the phrase that triggered my flashback. As I continue my readings in Revelation . . . as I try and follow along with the last days of earth . . . as I try and take in what living after the “age of grace” will be like . . . as I shudder at the wrath that will be poured out on a world that will continue to choose to reject, rebel, and revile God . . . I so welcome pausing at these “commercial breaks” where we are given some insight to the goings on around the throne of God . . . they are like an oasis.

I consider these ones who have conquered the enemy “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (12:11). I think of them joining their voices in the victory song of Moses . . . I hear them request “the song of the Lamb” . . . I imagine them singing, in perfect harmony, before the very throne of God. Their theme is that of His “great and amazing deeds” . . . of His “just and true ways.” Their purpose is to glorify His name . . . to exalt Him as the “King of the nations” . . . to declare that He alone is holy . . . Now, that’s a song I’d like to teach the world to sing!

And, they prophesy, that all nations will come and worship Him! That there will be a day when all peoples will bow down the knee and lift up their voices to sing the song of the Lamb. And then, won’t that be a hymn sing?!! Won’t that stir the heart?!!

And, while I anticipate that day, when I will be part of that “all nations choir”, I’m reminded that where it starts is with this season . . . this time of year which provides opportunity to focus on the One who came to bring peace . . . the One who came to do the Father’s will . . . the One who came to finish the work of salvation . . . the babe born in a manger to be the Lamb of God, come to take away the sin of the world . . . so that the redeemed of the Lord might one day join in single voice, unified around the throne of God . . . that all voices might one day be lifted up together, in perfect harmony, singing, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (5:13)

That’s that the song I hear . . . and it begins with this time of year . . .