I went to a Lady Antebellum concert last week with my handsome hubs. Loved it. And I wasn’t the only one. It was impressive. There is just something about looking out into a room with the capacity to hold 15,000 people, and watch the nearly full auditorium become clearly captivated by a handful of musicians on a stage set before them. There was dancing, there were hands up, there was laughing, screaming, singing, hands reaching for the stage and cell phones lighting up the arena. The girls lining the tiny walkway penetrating the front row were begging, reaching, for but a simple touch from the musicians on stage a few feet away. As lights flashed and the voices serenaded a mood developed — an atmosphere created that was impossible not to be taken in by.
And as I watched the room responding in front of me I had a moment. As though God gently overrode my current captive awe and whispered a reminder of his promise — that there will be a day when all of us will be moved to respond to an indescribable glory before us. “Every knee will bow, my love. This, in all its’ wonder will not compare to that day.” And I realized that there are not rooms that can hold the response we will have when all the world is taken in by His presence.
One day — however we regarded him moments before, his presence will permeate our lives and flow into the deepest corners of our hearts in such a way that we will collapse to our knees before him.
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” — Philippians 2:8-11
It’s reiterated over and over again all over the Bible; like a glimpse into what is to come. A promise of a day unmatchable to any that came before it. A transition into a life marked exclusively by the eternal.
“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.” — Isaiah 45:23
“…all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord.” — Isaiah 66:23
All of us will bow our knees before Him. All of us will be compelled to acknowledge who He is.
I imagine we’ll hear the sound of thunder resonating over all the earth as knees are bent and bodies fall prostrate before Him. As the thunder dies down in our ears I believe it will resonate in our hearts as waves of understanding fill us to the point of awe. Eyes will see, ears will hear, hearts will understand something we hardly had the capacity to grasp a second before. Something glorious and terrifying and beautiful that will render our ability to stand upright unthinkable — compel us to drop to our knees without a will or a want to alter our alignment otherwise. It won’t be a choice, not really. Once we encounter the glory that has been beckoning us for all of time our will to move will only be to honor Him. In that moment our interests to remove our attention just will not make sense, everything else will be trivial distractions as our knees are bent before Him. All of the world together at one time, like the greatest stage in all of history will be set out and the wonder and the power and the beauty of the one who has always reigned over us all will command the atmosphere.
This day will happen. To every single one of us — at the same time.
I am not so naive to think that we’re all safe – that we will all recognize this eternal truth in time for Heaven and Hell to come. But my prayer and my hope, is that as a result of truth laid bare before us, we would be willing to wrestle through what it all means to us. If life at it’s fullest is the most valuable of treasures, it deserves a wrestling match, right? And my prayer, is that as a result of considering his Word to us — wrestling with it and asking questions and seeking out truth as though it were a rare treasure — that more of us would come to a place where our knees were bowed in reverence and love long before the choice is withdrawn. Because either way, we’ll find ourselves in the same position, knees bowed down in awe of his love for us.