This morning when I came downstairs, CJ was in her chair and was finishing her read-through this year of the Scriptures again. She uses the chronological plan, too, and loves it. Why? Because it is the sequential revelation of what God is doing through redemptive history. Anyway, here is the story:

“May I read this aloud to you? It’s Revelation 19 till the end,” she asked.

“Of course,” I said. I love few things as much as reading, and I love it when my wife reads aloud to me. We invariably have deep discussions after the readings.

She began reading. I listened and followed along in one of my own Bibles. In Revelation 19, I listened as she read of the rejoicing in heaven and of the marriage supper of the Lamb. (The apostle John’s education at the feet of Christ is literary pathos and majesty unlike anything else in Scripture.)

Then she got to Revelation 20 and the apocalyptic language of the 1,000 years, and the judgments at the great white throne. Then she read Revelation 21 about the new heaven and new earth, and finally Revelation 22, and of Christ’s final words to John, about how the consummate story concludes and of how we are to press on, looking to God’s revealed Word, knowing that Christ knows all, and the scrolls will be opened ultimately, and how all hinges upon what we do when confronted with the truth.

After she finished reading, we talked about weighty concepts and views of the millennium, of Babylon, of the New Jerusalem, of how many read but do not understand, of biblical shepherds versus hirelings, of the trustworthiness of Scripture, and on and on.

CJ and I have been a team for decades. But there are few things I love about her as much as when I am able to come home from my career in the military, find her in her chair when I come downstairs in the morning after a night’s sleep, her worn Bible on her lap, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (Lady) beside her, her black marble eyes shining as I approach them both, and we can read Scripture together and dialogue about ultimate things.