Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” (Rev. 6:1)
I placed ten boxes of pizza on the table and hurried downstairs for plates. Being in charge of a youth event, I wanted to enforce some measure of civilization. I grabbed a teen leader and said, “Watch the pizzas. I’m going to get plates. I’ll be just a minute.” To hungry teenage boys facing fresh pizza, one minute can seem an eternity. I bounded back up the steps, plates in hand, to see boxes pilfered and pizza consumed. The teen I had left in charge had a slice in each hand. “I couldn’t stop them!” he shrugged.
Today’s passage is about who’s in charge. Command is revealed in a single word: “Come!” Apocalyptic pictures of conquest, conflict, food shortage, and death follow this word. These situations arise not only in the first century but in the twenty-first as well! What’s the cause? What’s the cure? Troubled hearts and inquiring minds of both the first and twenty-first century would like to know!
Yet beneath questions of cause and cure, lies another: “Who’s the boss? Who’s in charge?” Notice that it wasn’t the crisis-making horse riders. They only responded to the command of another creature! The weight of life’s complexities may feel like conquest, conflict, food shortage, and death, and we might feel like an overwhelmed teenager left in charge of the pizza. But behind the crisis-makers, God remains in charge.
Let the care and command of God shine through your life.
Aaron Perry is married to Heather, and they have four children. He teaches at Wesley Seminary in Marion and is active in his local church's children’s ministry.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
