It’s important in certain situations to get your name on the list. I call ahead to get my name on the list for seating at restaurants. I look for my name on the upgrade list when flying, even though I never get called forward to first class (but there’s always hope).

The end of the Bible describes the new Jerusalem. A heavenly city created from translucent gold and lined with jewels, it’s lit by the glory of God and the lamp of the Lamb. There’s no night there, nor crying or mourning or pain.

Sounds like heaven. How do I get in?

Nothing unclean will enter, nor anyone who does anything detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

I want my name on that list.

Medieval theologians believed that only one person in a thousand made it to heaven. A number to current thinkers believe everyone will eventually walk through those pearly gates. I fall somewhere in the middle.

But for any of us to get in, our name needs to be listed in that book—the Lamb’s book of life.

How do I make that happen? I cannot do it on my own, so I must ask the Lamb—Christ Jesus himself—to write me in. I cannot demand this, of course, but must humble myself, offer Jesus my life, take on his yoke and follow.

If my name’s on that list, it got there by no merit of my own. I don’t deserve it. But Jesus writes names with his graceful hand, and let’s hope he includes yours and mine as he does so.

Revelation 21 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Thomas Martinsen