Life Lines
january
The first month of the year, January, is named after Janus, the Roman god of
beginnings and endings, doorways and gates. He had two faces, one looking
back to the past, the other looking forward into the future.
Looking back on the year just ended, marred by “wars and rumors of
wars,” including violent attacks on civilians, may well make us anxious as we
look forward and wonder what the new year will bring.
But there is another direction we can look – namely up, to the God whose
providence is eternal and who watches over us every moment of every year.
The following is an account of a spiritual experience Swedenborg reported.
It is reassuring and gives us reason to be hopeful when the world seems to be
falling apart.
He says there was a crowd of many spirits about him making a noise that
sounded “devoid of order.”
They were complaining that everything was going to destruction; for in that
crowd nothing appeared consociated, and this made them fear destruction. They
also supposed that it would be total, as is the case when such things happen.
But in the midst of them I perceived a soft sound, angelically sweet, having
nothing in it that was out of order. Angelic choirs were there within, and the crowd
of spirits devoid of order was without.
This angelic strain continued a long time; and I was told that it represented
how the Lord rules confused and disorderly things which are without from what
is peaceful in the midst, by which the disorderly things in the circumference
are brought b ack into order, each from the error of its own nature. (Spiritual
Experiences 5396)
Looking back at world history we see that there has always been plenty of
noise and disorder. But we can also see, in the light of revelation, that within
the outer world of conflict and turmoil there is another world, a world of peace
and harmony, from which the soft voice of heaven is ever calling the world
back into order.
89