In The Presence of the King
- Maggie Wallem Rowe
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
If you'd prefer to listen to this week's letter, I'm happy to read it to you here.
IT HAPPENED ON SEPTEMBER 22, 1967—nearly 60 years ago now. The 2,000 college students and faculty members present in the Wheaton College chapel service would never forget that day.
Wheaton’s former president and current chancellor, Dr. V. Raymond Edman, had recently returned from a personal audience with the then-emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie. If one wishes to enter the presence of a king, he or she must be tutored in the extensive protocol such a royal visit demands. In vivid detail, Dr. Edman described his experience for the campus community.
And then came the pivotal moment in the Chancellor’s message, when he looked out into the student body, eyes glowing, and asked a single question.
“Can you imagine what it will be like one day to enter the presence of the King of Kings?”
What happened next would change the lives of countless students present that blue September morning.
Though I was not to enter Wheaton’s student body for another four years, I’ve been trying to answer Dr. Edman’s question for myself. As I move deeper into my eighth decade on this side of eternity, I’m thinking a lot about mortality. And immortality.
At the moment of our death, will we be instantly transported into the presence of Jesus, where we’ll find him sitting at the right hand of God? After all, the innocent Man hanging on the middle of those three instruments of torture on Golgotha assured his condemned companion, “This day you’ll be with me in paradise.”
Or is there a period of what some theologians call “soul sleep” before the dead in Christ rise to join him for all eternity?
We know God’s timing is not our own. A thousand years to us is but a moment in God’s sight. What is sure is that Jesus’ words to a grieving sister are just as true for us today:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?" (John 11: 25-26)
As Christ-followers around the globe prepare to celebrate the Resurrection this month, the bright sadness of the season of Lent reminds us to prepare our hearts as well. There is much about the chaotic state of our country – our world – that distresses us. Jesus told us it would.
Yet our hearts are strengthened to meet the troubles of each day because the Overcomer promised it would be so.
Last year I visited two earthly palaces—the Norwegian Royal Palace in Oslo, and Versailles in Paris.
One is sedate and simple, the other ostentatiously gilded and grand. But neither will ever compare to the home that has been prepared for us as daughters and sons of the King of Kings.
Scripture provides three primary glimpses into God’s throne room—two in the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament), and one in the New.
The accounts in Isaiah, Ezekiel and Revelation are remarkably consistent: Vivid descriptions of heavenly beings with multiple wings surrounding the throne, which is never unoccupied, though God’s face is never revealed.
In the autumn of 1967, a college Chancellor painted a verbal portrait of royalty for his listeners, asking them to imagine what it will be like to enter the presence of the King.
And on the 22nd of September, in the presence of two thousand witnesses, Dr. V. Raymond Edman did exactly that.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Maggie?”
I do. Yes Lord, I do.
Holding onto hope with you,
Maggie