Songs of the Redeemed

I've been listening to The Odes Project, a CD I received for Christmas.  It is a recently released collection of songs of the early Christian church -- ancient words translated for our times and set to music.  They draw us to the body of Christ and remind us that we, at this moment in history, are just a dot on the timeline of redemption.

I am a Christ-follower in the beginning of the 21st century, living in a small town in North America.  But I am a part of something so much bigger than that.  My heritage includes the believers who, over the generations, have met to worship Jesus in catacombs and cathedrals, under thatched roofs, in refugee camps, homes, warehouses and storefronts on every continent.  I may not have been present nor experienced the struggles that my brothers and sisters through time have experienced, yet I am one with them.

As believers in Jesus, we are interwoven with people we will meet in Heaven, those described in Revelation as "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to or God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (7:9,10)

Just maybe, when we get there, we will hear the songs of the redeemed that have echoed through the ages, wherever the Name of Jesus has been lifted up!  I sure hope so!