Streets of Gold

And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass.
Revelation 21:21b (NLT)

I was exploring a new path on my morning bike ride, when I glanced to the side and spotted a farm shed at the end of a dirt track. It looked photogenic, but I was moving fairly quickly, so by the time it registered in my brain, I had already passed the sandy lane and had to turn back.

I parked my bike at the beginning of the field road, and walked a bit closer to the shed. As I got to where the grass on the side was a bit taller, it looked almost ablaze in the morning sun. The colors were a bit redder than usual because of the low sun angle combined with all the smoke in the air from the seasonal burning of the recently harvested rice paddies. The gleaming gold ribbon of tinsel lining the sides of the modest track immediately reminded me of John's description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation, where he writes about the streets being made of gold. (The colors may be a bit exaggerated in the photo, because I was trying to adjust for the washed out image taken through the age-worn lens of my phone camera.)

The gold also is a reminder, a few days before Christmas, of one of the gifts brought by the Magi to the young child Jesus in Bethlehem. Gold marked the beginning of Jesus life on earth and will also be present at the beginning of His reign in the New Jerusalem.

While we may not have the experience of a white Christmas here in Thailand, at least we can have a golden one.

This Christmas season, you may find yourself surrounded by white snow, green grass, or even desert sand. Your Christmas tree may be a spruce tree or a palm tree or a branch painted white, like we used to see in Haiti. You may find yourself surrounded by family and friends or you may be all alone. These trappings are just reminders of the time when God chose to identify with the humankind He had created by sending Jesus into our world as one of us. And this same Jesus will one day return to be among us while we walk the streets of gold.