Underland: Down Here in Australia

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Revelation 21: 1.

Underland: this is a new experience. I mean, you step off the plane (I'm from the UK) and everything is, well, different, a new world. No, let’s rephrase that. You keep seeing things that are ‘like' something you’ve seen before but not like them. 

You turn your head and point, ‘Hey, there’s some wagtails’ but they’re bigger than ours and have different markings; and here’s some kookaburras, they're rather like kingfishers but larger and quite another colour … different. The sky, the southern sky – it’s the same but different - above my head a massive canopy, dotted with stars I have never, ever seen before. And the sea, there’s the familiar, rolling waves and roaring drone but .. it’s different: turquoise-blue and clear. And those birds, the Galahs … they’ve got the head of a parrot and the body of a pigeon. Well, I’m blowed. It’s a different world, the same - but different.

You know, it’s going to be a little like this on the New Earth: the same but different – but markedly more so. 

And yet, here, in Underland, there are things that are just as different as can be. I mean, I’ve never, ever seen anything similar to that lopping, jumping, comical creature, the kangaroo, who sits on its hind legs endlessly munching - grass, I suppose. They’re fascinating, absolutely. And, I reckon, on the New Earth there’ll be those strange, strange creatures and entities that are quite unlike anything we have ever seen. I mean, think of the living creatures in Revelation, covered with eyes, back and front and with six wings: “The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle (Revelations 4:7). And what about the sea in front of the throne which looks like a sea of glass, clear as crystal (Revelations 4:6).
 
I enjoy the word ‘like.’ It doesn’t  mean quite the same as ‘identical’. We could talk, too, about Ezekiel’s strange and wonderful, unearthly visions of those burning, celestial beings, the cherubim, with four faces each whose awesome task it to propel the throne of God (Ezekiel 1: 4-27). 

The New Earth, that’s something to look forward to. I reckon it will be the same but different, but then we’ll encounter other things, totally unknown, unrecognisable, unheard of. I’m looking forward to it, I really am.